[Avodah] Even vaAven -- pratical applications

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 04:04:59PM +0000, Kenneth Miller wrote:
: It's hard for me to imagine a case like [R' Sender Haber reports that
: RSZA] suggested, where a
: person's bathroom scale shows him to weigh less than he really does,
: because people tend not to be fooled by such things...

I'm would figure RSZA is just analyzing the halakhos, and letting the
chips fall where they may. Our guesses about taamei hamitzvos aside.
Aftr all, BB 89a says "afilu hi avit shel meimei raglayim". Rav Yehudah
meiSura (not to be confused with the usual R' Yehudah, RY at Nehardaa)
says (ad loc) "lo yihyeh lekha beveisekha" and "lo yihyeh bekisekha"
tell you that not to have a false eifah or even (respectively) even
sitting unused in storage. The Chinukh (#602) similarly concludes
"afilu lo yishqol bahem le'olam".

Based on this, my impression of taam hamitzvah here has nothing to do
with whether anyone is going to be fooled. Rather, we are being pushed
to develop a disgust at unethical business practices that is so primal
that no one would even think of having anything associated with it in
their home.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Never must we think that the Jewish element
micha at aishdas.org        in us could exist without the human element
http://www.aishdas.org   or vice versa.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch