Kikar is reporting about a very strange psak by Rav chaim Kanievsky, assuming it is true.
According to the report, Rav Chaim Kanievsky has recently begun adding to his brachos given to visitors a comment that they should stop wearing a wrist-watch. Rav Kanievsky used to commonly make comments to visitors that they should grow a beard, grow longer peyyos, and the like. Recently this new comment has been his focus.
The reason Rav Kanievsky is telling men to not wear a wrist-watch is because in his opinion a watch is a woman's garment and when a man wears one he is transgressing the prohibition of men not wearing womens garments.
According to the report, his talmidim say this is not a new psak or opinion of his, but he has only just started telling to to visitors who come asking for a bracha. Somebody even recently showed him a picture of Rav Elyashiv, his father in law, in which it can been that he is clearly wearing a watch, as well as a picture of Rav Shach as well in which his watch can be clearly seen. Rav Kanievsky responded saying he knows they wore watches, and he himself used to wear a watch as well, until he found out definitively that the Chazon Ish had been of the opinion that it is prohibited.
I sometimes wonder what makes something into a "kli gever" or a "begged isha". Looking around it is clear that watches are worn by men as much as they are worn by women. And it has always been so. So, why is a watch considered "begged isha"? Are eyeglasses also going to be categorized as kli gever or begged isha? Some items are obviously one or the other, depending on their common use, but other items are commonly used by both genders so how is it determined that such an item is dominantly male or female in its usage?
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