[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Michael Makovi]

I am reading at the moment R' DZ Hoffman's work on nicht-Judes on
Professor Levine's website. Rabbi Hoffman makes three particularly key
arguments:

1) All the ostensibly discriminatory laws in the Shulhan Aruch only
apply to ancient immoral heathens, following the Be'er haGolah, which
makes an argument similar to Meiri, even though Meiri is not cited.

2) Even against immoral ancient nicht-judes (which are not availed of
Be'er haGolah/Meiri), darkhei shalom overrides the empirical halakhah
which otherwise permits us to ill-treat them. According to truth and
justice, we should ill-treat the evil nicht-jude, but peace overrides
this. (Rabbi Jakobovits makes a similar argument; he says that darkhei
shalom is an ethical corrective of the Torah which overrides otherwise
binding empirical halakhah when that empirical halakhah violates
shalom.)

3) Hilul hashem also obviates mistreating them. Even in secret, a
hilul hashem is a sin. This answers the question of Rabbis Aharon
Lichtenstein and Yehuda Amital about saving a nicht-Jude on a desert
island, where mishum eiva is no concern. Even if mishum eiva is not
present, a hilul hashem b'seter is still present, and thus it is
forbidden to not save him.

But Rabbi Hoffman applies a proviso to hilul hashem: on page 10 of the
PDF, he notes that the matter must be something which the nicht-judes
would disapprove of according to their own standards and morals. If
the nicht-Judes do not disapprove, then hilul hashem is of no avail
regarding their treatment. This solves my question of hypocrisy -
Rabbi Hoffman has ruled hypocrisy forbidden by virtue of hilul hashem,
even b'seter!

To quote Rabbi Hoffman, "This rule [of hilul hashem] neutralizes every
of the Sh. A. involving nicht-Judes and akums, as long as they are
certain to be rejected by the current concepts of justice and morale."

Mikha'el Makovi