[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Daniel Eidensohn wrote:

> An additional source indicating the lack of innocence of
> tinok shenishba is from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.
>
> *Minchas Shlomo (3:19): Saving tinok shenishba on Shabbos -
> *Perhaps it is correct to say that also a tinok shenisba
> amongst the non-Jews is not to be saved or killed since
> his whole life he considers himself to be a non-Jew and he
> doesn't believe that he is a Jew even if he is told directly.
> Therefore he will transgress the entire Torah inadvertently
> (shogeg). Perhaps it is better that he should die than to
> live mistakenly as a non-Jew.

I'm having a lot of difficulty trying to understand why it could possibly be better for this person to die than to live.

The only guess I can come up with is that (like the Ben Sorer Umorah) his early death would minimize his sins.

If that is correct, then it would apply ONLY to this sort of Tinok SheNishba, who, as RSZA wrote, would not believe he's Jewish even if you told him directly. But this would NOT apply to the more common sort of TsN, who does accept his Jewishness, and who might someday do teshuva.

If the above understanding is correct, then I agree that it is evidence towards the point that RDE is making, which is that even for the common sort of TsN, there *is* a lack of innocence.

By the way, it seems to me that this is consistent with the section R' Michael Makovi quoted from Rav Aryeh Kaplan:

> However, a person who has been brought up in a
> nonreligious environment where he never had the
> opportunity to learn about Judaism, is like a
> child who was abducted by gentiles, and is not
> considered to be doing wrong purposely. 

My experience has been that Rav Kaplan was VERY precise in his wording, especially in this work, his "Handbook of Jewish Thought". Please note the last word in that sentence: "purposely". Now read it without that word, and it has an entirely different meaning.

If Rav Kaplan had left out the word "purposely", then he would have meant what RMM claims he meant. But he did not leave it out. He deliberately included it, and with its inclusion, he seems to be very consistent with what RDE wrote: Guilty on a shogeg level, but guilty nevertheless.

Akiva Miller
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