[Avodah] Haleiv HaCompanies

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah V27#96 (which I jumped into w/out reading the preceding few dozen
digests), RAM wrote:
> In the English phrase, the knowledge is the ikar, and seeing it is merely
a means to acquire that knowledge. In RMF's view (AIUI) seeing is the ikar,
and knowledge of the event is an acceptable substitute.
> I get the feeling that I've pointed to a difference between Jewish and
nonJewish ways of looking at the world. I suppose it has something to do
with the importance of eidus and testimony, but I sense that it goes beyond
that. Anyone else have any thoughts on this? <
Halachah seems to be based on what we can see (e.g. "spontaneous
generation" and our drinking water, to name two sheretz-related issues) or
not see (e.g. the "20 amos" criterion). The relationship with "knowledge"
(e.g. the odds of there being a worrisome sheretz in that cup of water even
though the average individual can't see any problem with his eyes) is worth
exploring :).  Perhaps the rules governing what we should be machmir on
(the level of eidus required in dinei n'fashos; issurei Torah like
ingesting a sheretz) come into play.

All the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20100413/0ee37295/attachment-0002.htm>