[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Micha Berger]

I think that our treatment of unzerer vs nachriim is different can be
explained by at least 2 factors:

1- There is a difference in one's responsibility to a brother
and one's responsibility to others. (As RRW noted last January in
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n023.shtml#03>, not that I
would approach the idea with the same emphasis.) To take a clear case,
ribis. The pasuq refers to the borrower as achikha. If your brother is
stuck needing cash, charging him interest is a little callous. When it's
a stranger, interest is more acceptable. The pasuq explicitly tells you
that ribis isn't immoral, it's a matter of ahavas Yisrael and achdus.

2- As already noted by RJFS in "Double Standards in Jewish Law"
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n372.shtml#03>, one could
understand these differences as a natural consequence of them having
different laws toward us.

Related to this, I recently got an email pointing me to R' B Hecht's
essay "The Question of Dual Moralities"
<http://www.nishma.org/articles/insight/insight5758-01.htm> which
begins:
> The relationship of the Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach, the Noachide Code
> incumbent upon all humanity, to the Taryag Mitzvot, incumbent upon Jews,
> is one that demands further investigation. On the surface, the Halachic
> Code of 613 mitzvot would seem to be, simply, an expansion upon the
> 7 mitzvot that bind all Mankind. The additional mitzvot of Taryag
> would seem to represent additional stringencies G-d has placed upon
> the Jewish People which, while inherently beneficial, demand further
> duties and obligations. The general declaration in T.B. Sanhedrin 59a,
> that something cannot be forbidden to a Noachide yet permitted to a
> Jew, would seem to support this understanding. Proponents of this view
> would seem to perceive the relationship between the Sheva Mitzvot and
> Taryag in a manner similar to the way they would view the relationship,
> within Halacha, between acting lifnim meshurat hadin, beyond the letter
> of the law, and acting according to din, the law. Along the continuum
> of a value construct, ....

> As presented in my Crisis in Jewish Identity, Part III, NISHMA Journal
> VI, this perception has its difficulties. The distinction between the
> Noachide Code and Taryag does not seem to be only quantitative but also
> qualitative. In various circumstances, the two seem to be demanding not
> only differing value applications but conflicting applications. An
> interesting example of this is the case of judgement. According to the
> Noachide Code, judgement can be rendered by one judge...

RBH argues that that the goals of the requirements of berisei Noach and
Sinai (my terms) are different in kind, not only quantity.

A little later, he writes:
> Law would seem to have two purposes. One is the protection of society.
> The other is the development of the individual. The focus of the Noachide
> system would seem to be the former; its primary purpose is the protection
> of society. Its evidentiary rules, thus, were demarcated to meet this
> goal.[9] The focus of Taryag, though, would seem to be the latter; its
> primary focus is the individual. What is in question is not what society
> needs but the moral status of the individual and what he or she deserves.

> [9] T.B. Makkot 7a  would seem to imply that protection of society is
> still also part of the goal of the standard Jewish court system. It
> would be hard-pressed to understand this gemara  as applying to the
> emergency court power although that would be a defense to Rabbi Shimon
> ben Gamliel's challenge of Rabbi Akiva.

Perhaps one can take the same distinction of moral objective, and apply
it to Sinaitic law between benei beris, and how the law relates to those
outside of the beris.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

CC: RBH, RRW, RJFS

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter