[Avodah] Rav Schwab on Chillul Hashem

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Jan 01, 1970 at 12:00:00AM +0000, Zev Sero wrote:
: On 11/10/2015 10:24 AM, Micha Berger [indirectly quoted a translation
of the Dor Revi'i]:
:>	I say that anything that is revolting to enlightened Gentiles is
:>	forbidden to us, not just because of hilul hashem, but because
:>	of the command to be holy. Anything the violates the norms
:>	of enlightened human beings cannot be permitted to us, a holy
:>	nation;

: Who are these "enlightened people", and what makes them so special?
: If they have invented their own value system that contradicts the
: Torah then they are not enlightened, they are savages..

I just mentioned in the previous post the Sho'el uMeishiv 1:44 on
copyright. To quote my summary from v7n58, when it was fresher in
my mind:

> The Sho'el uMeishiv's position that if secular society saw the moral
> obligation to protect an author's creation and publisher's investment, it
> is impossible that the Torah is less moral. He therefore assigns ownership
> of ideas to their creator. And since, in halachah, ownership is eternal
> (barring proactively making a kinyan), he paskened that copyrights
> are lehalachah also eternal. 

> Note that he isn't claiming dina dimalchusah. There are grounds for
> that too, and even for turning that dina dimalchusah ownership into a
> halachic eternal ownership. But that's for a discussion of the halachos
> of copyright.

RZS's question would be equally applicable.

But I would think the distinction is obvious -- whether they express
a moral imperative we don't vs whether they call something "moral"
that "contradicts the Torah."

Halakhah does a lot to limit the execesses of slavery, it does not
mandate slavery. (Except when it comes to freeing aku"m, but that has
its own ulterior value issue.) One cannot really assert that it
*contradicts* Torah values to ban slavery altogether.

Or, for that matter, to ban polygyny. Did Rabbeinu Gershom bow to the
opinion of "savages" in ending the instituion that created "tzaros"?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The trick is learning to be passionate in one's
micha at aishdas.org        ideals, but compassionate to one's peers.
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