[Avodah] Is it Musar to Buy Chocolate?

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

Here's where I am currently...

: By treating Gyim as we treat Yidden we are also denying the special
: relationship that HKBH has created which binds Yidden together.

I was raised with too many Hirschian notions to understand the subject
line. To RSRH, "Mamlekhes Kohanim" means to elevate society's moral
calling; changing the world in this way is the whole point of the
Jewish People.

As RMR noted off-list, that doesn't make what he wrote /wrong/, it's
just an observation.

BUT...

The Ran (AZ Rif 1a, on 6a) holds that we are required lehafrisham
min ha'aveirah. The Tashbeitz (shu"t 3:133) uses the same phrasing to
justify his pesaq that mikol maqom assur lesaymam -- i.e. mesayeia'
is not limited to Jews.

The Mordekhai holds it is mutar.

The Rama (YD 151:1) discusses selling an oveid AZ something he needs
for his avodah, but could buy elsewhere. He holds lehalakhah "nahagu
lehaqil" like the Mordekhai (citing the Moredekha), but (citing the Ran,
the Tosafos, and others, who prohibit baal nefesh yachmir al atzmo.

The Pischei Teshuvah quotes Emunas Shemu'el that he doesn't find this
heter clear, as the gemara's case is where he owns a usable animal
already, not where is another available for purchase, and therfore wants
to limit the Mordekha's heter to that one case.

(I noticed that the Rama blames common practice for our holding like the
Mordechai, as well as the ES's reluctance, as though neither like the
sevara. But you can buy that speculation or not, the following conclusion
is based on the ba'al nefesh yachmir.)

It would seem therefore that hashkafically, we are supposed to be helping
non-Jews avoid sinning "lehafrisham min ha'aveirah", even if this value
doesn't rise to the point of turning mesayeia' into a chiyuv.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person lives with himself for seventy years,
micha at aishdas.org        and after it is all over, he still does not
http://www.aishdas.org   know himself.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter


Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Friendship is like stone. A stone has no value,
micha at aishdas.org        but by rubbing one stone against another,
http://www.aishdas.org   sparks of fire emerge. 
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  - Rav Mordechai of Lechovitz