[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 03, 2008 at 02:39:04PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> : >1- There is a difference in one's responsibility to a brother
> : >and one's responsibility to others...
> 
> : I'm glad to see that you agree with this point, since it's the one I've
> : been making here for years, apparently to your disapproval...
> 
> There is a difference between increasing our responsibility to brothers,
> and minimizing our general responsibility to tzelem E-lokim, or reducing
> the scope of those words.

Let's leave the ontological question aside.  Ontology has never been
that important to me.  WRT to the practical issue, what exactly is the
difference between us?  You seem to assume an absolute scale, and a
"default state" from which I am "demoting" einam-yehudim, whereas you
leave them in that state and raise yehudim above it.  But where do you
get that absolute scale or that default state from?  And without one,
if we simply describe the difference between us and them, and the
consequences of that difference, who is to say whether we are "demoting"
one or "promoting" the other, or perhaps demoting or promoting both,
but one more than the other?


> These are two distinct issues that divide us. E.g. the Kuzari says the
> difference is ontological, not due to lack of common beris and eidah,
> and yet does so by aggrandizing the Yehudi's nature, not playing down
> the others'.

Again, what is the difference here?  Mere semantics?  

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas