Q. If I spend some time sunbathing at a beach or swimming pool area, can I recite brochos and learn Torah with just my bathing suit on and my head covered?
A. See answer # 1075 above. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 74: 6) rules that for the sake of reciting the shema it suffices if one covers downwards from his loins. Therefore if one also covers his head in principle he can recite brochos and learn Torah while wearing only a bathing-suit. However, Mishna Berura (ibid. 22) rules that this is only when in need. On the onset, one should wear a robe or cover with a towel, when making a brocho and certainly when reading the shema. One should also be careful to wash and maintain the hands clean when reciting the brocho, since touching body parts that are usually covered renders them unfit.
In regards to learning Torah or reading Torah related material while sunbathing and being dressed only in a bathing-suit and wearing a kipa, Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit”a opinion is that for learning Torah when in need, you don't have to cover completely.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a
Important Numbers
