[Avodah] Beshogeg-Bemeizid

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 07, 2010 at 11:16:21AM -0400, jew at when.com wrote:
: Today, what determines whether serious averas such as being mechalel
: shabbos or intermarriage are considered beshogeg or bemeizid?

I assume you're asking about Tinoq sheNishba, which the gemara says makes
their chilul Shabbos (Shabbos 68a) and their entering the miqdash while
tamei (Abayei, Shevuos 5a) as being "only" beshogeig.

I'm complicating the matter by intentionally adding a second question:
1- What determines who is a Tinoq sheNishba (TsN)?
2- What determines who is beshogeig?

This topic is visited here often. The gemara's case of TsN is ingnorance
of the halakhah. There are acharonim who are meiqilim, at least for
someone of the dinim about how we treat others (eg the differences in
how we treat apiqursim or mechalelei shabbos befarhesia if they were
culpable) for people who know the halakhah, but were raised with a bias
against following it. ("Outmoded", "*They* do...", etc...)

Alternatively, it's possible people in this latter class, who know
halakhah but were biased by background not to think it applies to them,
as acting beshogeig without being formal Tinoqos sheNishbe'u. Looking
at the definition of TsN may not be enough to answer the original
question.


Does this apply to intermarriage? Historically, we would say no -- a
person had to be pretty assimilated not to realize that intermarriage is
a major problem. OTOH, say someone's dad or step-mom is a non-Jew. And if
not theirs, then half their friends' parents. R"L in the US, this is the
situation the current generation of 20-somethings are coming from. Can
we really say the current generation of non-O Jews is inculcated with
knowledge of the issur?

The other question is who is to judge?

WRT oneshim (beis din shel matah), we require a person to recieve and
acknowledge hasra'ah to rule out their acting beshogeig.

WRT culpability, that's really only between the person themselves and
the Bochein kelayos valeiv. How do we know someone else's motivations
well enough to know whether they really knew it was assur?

The question for us is balancing dan leqaf zekhus with uvi'arta hara'ah
beqirbekha when it comes to how to relate to these people. And I think
that since there are such high communal walls between O and the rest
of the Jewish world, with their behavior having minimal impact on what
we consider acceptable (not "permissable", but normal breaking of the
rules), that personally I would side toward dan leqad zekhus.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 8th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 1 day in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Chesed sheb'Gevurah: When is holding back a
Fax: (270) 514-1507                           Chesed for another?