Swimming and Skating

by Yeshiva Guy

Went ice skating here in NY today, and was reminded of a funny exchange I had with a bochur back in Eretz Yisroel.
I had gone ice skating up north in Israel’s only real rink, in Metula (the activity is called “hachlaka al hakerach” (lit. sliding on the ice). A small town located on the Israeli/Lebanese border, it’s claim to fame is the Canadian Center, nestled protectively in the center of the small residential housing area. The Canadian Center is a massive sports complex, housing, in addition to the ice facility, an indoor pool, NBA size basketball court, bowling lanes, shooting gallery, and a couple other things to boot.
So I had mentioned to a guy I know not too well, Chaim, that I’d gone.
“Really? You went to the Canadian Center? What’d you do there, go swimming?”, he wanted to know. “No, I couldn’t,” I told him, “it’s a mixed swimming pool”.
“Well, so is the ice skating”, he replied. I double takek, and peered at him to make sure he was serious. He was. “Umm…yeah, but at the pool people typically tend to have less on than off, as opposed to the ice rink”, I slowly explained. “Not true”, said he, again, quite seriously…”they have those ballerina people skating in the middle on the ice too”.
Really people, there’s a limit. Drawing an analogy from a pool to ice skating is it. Not that I fully endorse ice skating from a frumkeit perspective- there are definitely some ta’aruvos/tznius issue to worry about,- but really…a pool?