Mixed Swimming

Question

I found an answer on your site that says mixed swimming is forbidden. I want to share my feelings about that. For I do not believe mixed swimming is sinful and have no regrets that it’s something I do.
I have always seen myself as an Orthodox Jew and never would consider anything else. I wear a kippah, daven three times a day, put on tefillin, keep fully kosher, and observe Shabbat.
At the same time, I have always engaged in mixed swimming. Not just that, but I met my wife, also an Orthodox Jew, at the side of the pool while going mixed swimming. Soon after I graduated from college, I was hanging out on the pool deck when a beautiful young woman I had never seen before was laying in a bikini right next to me. I had only planned on spending up to an hour there, but I struck up a conversation with her that lasted all day until the pool’s closing time. A friendship was born that led quickly to romance. What attracted me to her was not her looks or her bikini clad body, but all the things we could relate to about life and how comfortable we felt with each other. I started talking to her because she just happened to be the human being who was sitting closest me that day. She turned out to be the purest soul. We were meant for each other and although we married almost a year later, we actually became a couple that very day.
Today we have been happily married for over 40 years and we are now grandparents. We have never stopped mixed swimming and we continue to swim mixed to this day. We took our kids to the pool and beach throughout their childhood and now we do the same with our grandkids, all at the same time they go to Jewish day schools and have some of the finest Torah values.
I have nothing to apologize for mixed swimming. Had I not gone mixed swimming, I would never have met my lovely wife and we never would have had so many beautiful children and wonderful grandchildren who are all fully Torah observant Jews and such an important part of the Jewish people.
I have always remained faithful to my wife and she has always been faithful to me. She is still the same lovely woman as she was the day I met her on the deck of the pool. Mixed swimming has never caused me to stray and has not put my fidelity at risk. Had either of us deprived ourselves or mixed swimming, some really wonderful lineages in the Jewish people would not exist and the world would be a much darker place.

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Answers

  1. Your story as to how you met your wife is truly touching. However, I am not sure what you are trying to prove with it as the Halacha is absolutely clear that it is forbidden to go mixed swimming.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team

  2. Throughout my life, I have followed orthodox rabbis who have permitted it. The rabbi I followed growing up and his wife actually did it themselves.

  3. If so, I do wonder what possessed you to write in originally. Why would Gateways following a different approach to the Halacha be a source of irritation to you? Surely, according to your opinion, this should be no different than any other ruling that some agree upon and others do not.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team