[Avodah] What would a Torah government look like

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, January 24, 2008 3:05 pm, R Shmuel Weidberg wrote:
:> I do not think beis din would try to impose shemiras hamitzvos on a
:> society that ignores them.

: Yoshiahu hamelech tried to do that. He had two talmidei chachamim go
: to everyhouse to inspect for avodah zarah....

I understood Yoshiahu as trying to create a wave of kiruv, and then
enforced the law only after he was under the mis-impression it was
successful. He spent 6 years cleaning up AZ from the country,
culminating with grinding down Yeravam's altar in Beis-El (why wasn't
that first?), then the greatest qorban Pesach ceremony since Shelomo
hamelekh, and only then did he set up the police force. Yirmiyahu 3,
the pasuq quoted by the gemara RSW cites, called the BY "meshuvah", a
return to the old.

It would seem that Yoshiyahu's error was in thinking that such rapid
change could be both deep and permanent. He changed the people -- now
even children mastered taharos -- but the depth of their commitment
faded. (A return to the learning gemara while smoking on Shabbos
discussion?)

...
: Lulei demistafina, I would say that midinei adam there is no chiyuv
: misah for certain crimes, when there is no Sanhedrin. Part of the
: point of hasroas eidim is that the person gives away his life....

If you are saying that misas beis din has more to do with the
rebelliousness of willing to do it even after hasra'ah and the onesh
spelled out than the issur itself, I would agree.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
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