[Avodah] Shmitta

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jul 29, 2007 at 06:00:43PM -0600, Michael Kopinsky wrote:
: On 7/28/07, Dr. Josh Backon <backon at vms.huji.ac.il> wrote:
: > [According to
: > the Kesef Mishneh regarding living in Israel, today we *do* accept
: > ger toshav].

: That would require them accepting the issur of retzichah.  And if they were
: ready for that, a lot of our problems would be solved!

But they accept the issur of retzichah, sort of. The problem is that
they define permitted/mandatory killing overly broadly. Lehavdil, "lo
sirtzakh" poses similar problems: retzichah is prohibited, but the
definition of retzichah (as opposed to other slayings) is *prohibited*
killing. How do we understand this diberah as something other than an
empty tautology? But back to the subject...

This raises the question of what "accepting the 7 mitzvos" means. How
far can they stretch the theory and still be considered accepting?

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
micha at aishdas.org        about things most people don't watch even on
http://www.aishdas.org   Yom Kippur.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rabbi Israel Salanter