[Avodah] [Areivim] dan lekaf zechus

[Chana Luntz]

> On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:46:25 -0000 "Chana Luntz" 
> <chana at kolsassoon.org.uk> writes:
> 
> I said "Aside from how any allegations against an institution 
> reflect on its sponsors"
> 
> There is apparently some feeling here that the institution 
> per se is entitled to DLZ treatment.

How does one divorce an institution from its facilty and those who
constitute it?  By judging the one you are perforce judging the other,
so in order to avoid judging individuals, surely you must extend the
same treatment to the institutions of which they are a part.  And even
more so where people are using the mere association with a particular
institution as a test of whether a person is considered kosher or not.
If you are going to use association with an "edah ra" as a reason to
judge people, it seems to me that you first have to establish that the
edah is, indeed, an edah ra.  If anything, a community of people should,
based on first principles, be entitled to a greater dan l'chaf zechus
than each individual, given the prima facie presumption that the
shechina rests on a community in Israel and that judgement is more
favorable when on a community than when on an individual (a theme that
comes up repeatedly on Yom Kippur).  Obviously that presumption can be
displaced - is that not precisely the point of deriving the concept of
community from the meraglim, but I can't see the basis on which a
community should be judged less favorably than an individual - can you?

> 
> Gershon
> gershon.dubin at juno.com

Regards

Chana