[Avodah] Eis laasos

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 02:27:39PM +0200, Michael Makovi wrote:
: Or maybe, one individual missing the shofar is not enough. Maybe an
: eit la'asot lashem requires the *tzibur* to miss the shofar. Maybe eit
: la'asot lashem applies davka for a catastrophe involving the masses -
: perhaps it is not the individual's loss of contact with Hashem that is
: key, but either the tzibur's or the multitude of individuals'.

Eis la'asos Lashem is for Hashem, not the individual or the tzibur. It
requires a potential calamity so great that the entire historical
enterprise is in jepordy. Writing the mishnah was a good idea because
otherwise the TSBP may have been lost for all of humanity.

However, in the case of not hearing a shofar if the only opportunity is
in a synagogue with no mechitzah, I think RYBS's argument would be that
not hearing the shofar is the /more/ preservational decision.

Which is akin to my observation that the Rambam uses eis laasos to
describe gezeiros to protect on issur deOraisa by telling people to
neglect an asei besheiv ve'al ta'aseh. (Eg not blowing Shofar on Shabbos.)

But in terms of qum va'asei, we have all of four examples, and all appear
to be cases where one could argue the entire enterprise at stake.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The most prevalent illness of our generation is
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