[Avodah] Maakeh

[Michael Kopinsky]

On 1/3/07, Mordechai Torczyner <rabbi at att.net> wrote:
> On 12/29/06, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> > Think how many shuls you know have a duchan built like a stage
> > -- no maakah. We think of Judaism in very rite-based terms: frumkeit, not
> > ehrlachkeit.
> 
> Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 427:3 explicitly exempts a shul from a
> maakeh.
> 
> Presumably, though, if it were truly a dangerous situation there would still
> be a lifnei iver obligation.

Obligation on whom?  The nosei keilim there say that there is another
shita in the rishonim (which the Mechaber seems to pasken like by Mezuzah)  
that says cattle-houses and the like are chayav b'mezuzah and maakeh, even
though he is Soseim like the Rambam in CM 427.  They explain (IIRC) that
by maakeh, everyone agrees that you're patur, since there's no individual
person to be mechayeiv.

I don't know why you think there would be lifnei iver.  If you mean it in 
the literal sense, maakeh is already mechayev you to protect against 
danger. And if in the classic sense, lifnei iver only exists if there's a 
halachic chiyuv/issur for someone.

But in any case, as I said before, it seems that the only thing that is
objectively chayav in ma'akeh regardless of danger is the roof of a
residential building.  Other things, such as scary dogs and deep pits,
necessitate preventative measures (not necessarily a 10 tefachim fence),
only when they are subjectively considered dangerous.