[Avodah] Lifnei Iver/Kanaus

[Micha Berger]

In Avodah v23n178, on Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:08:25 +0300, Rt Shoshana L. Boublil
<toramada at bezeqint.net> wrote:
: As to the heretical material, again, this is one sided, based on a single 
: witness proclaiming them heretical, and based on these examples, it's 
: possible that one person's heretical material is actually another person's 
: history book, or mathematics book or a volume of Shakespeare.

It famously has happened before not that many years ago, not that we
reallly want to go back to that conversation.

: To pasken in such a way that without witnesses, without warning, without any 
: Jewish judicial process, you can invade and harm another person's things, 
: and not fear for Gezeila is extremely worrisome.  It also explains where 
: people get the idea that throwing stones at cars for any reason they 
: consider legitimate is okay, or starting fires in garbage cans is fine, 
: despite the sakanat Nefashot involved.

Qana'us means acting w/out a beis din -- Pinechas is the exemplar, no? So,
if one believes kana'us is appropriate, than one should be taking the
law into their own hands.

However, it also requires a complete lack of personal negi'os. In my
bar mitzvah derashah, written by R' Matis Blum, he made the distinction
between Shim'on and Levi's attack on Chamor and maaseh Pinechas. Yaaqov
didn't condemn his sons' actions beshe'as ma'aseh, only at the end
of his life he says "ki ve'apam hargu ish, uvirtzonam iqru shor. Arur
apam..." (Ber 49:6-7) It wasn't until Yaaqov learned about them trying
to uproot Yosef (shor) that he realized that the incident at Chamor
included an element of personal anger. And that made it condemnable.

So, unless someone has the purity of soul of Pinechas, I would think
qana'us is a non-option.

Which makes me wonder if the advice was given lemaaseh, or if the
statement was one of halachic theory.

GCT!
-mi

PS: Speaking of RMBlum, may his wife, Chayah Ita Sarah bas Devorah, have
refu'ah sheleimah.

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter