[Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

[Nishma]

Micha:

Thank you for passing on my words to the list. On the distinction between 
justice for Bnei Noach and in the batei dinim of Yisrael, there is an Or 
Sameach -- where unfortunately is not on the tip of my tongue but it may be 
Hichot Rotzeach -- that compares the Noachide courts to the courts of the 
melech which I also see as having the purpose of protecting society rather 
than punishing the evil individual.

In regard to the issue of the distinction in treatment of bnei Noach and 
bnei brit, I just wanted to mention my approach. I postulate that there is a 
distinction between what we may term objective morality or ethics and what 
we may term social mores. For example, in any society there is a distinction 
between how we treat people within the group and how we treat people outside 
the group. This distinction would surface in the distinction between how we 
treat citizens and non-citizens. This type of approach may be helpful in 
understanding any distinctions between treatment of Jews and treatment of 
non-Jews. For example, the charging of interest would thus not seem to be an 
inherent immoral act but rather it is the Torah's desire that within the 
social dynamics of Klal Yisrael the Torah wishes the dynamics of 
interpersonal behaviour to not include the paying of interest and thus be a 
society built upon such a dynamic. As you raise the topic, I just wanted to 
put in my two cents. I hope it is helpful.

Take care
RBH

----- Original Message [trimmed by me. -micha] ----- 
From: "Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org>
To: <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
Cc: <rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com>; <jay at m5.chicago.il.us>; <rbh at nishma.org>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 1:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Avodah] Hypocrisy in halakhah

>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...
> 2- ... 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> ...

> 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...