[Avodah] collective punishment

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, October 27, 2007 5:58 pm, R Eli Turkel wrote:
: We have previously discussed the destruction of Amalek which implies
: collective punishment....

If the destruction is an onesh, yes.

RAL suggests that Sha'ul lost the melkhah not so much for saving Agag
directly. Rather, he was obligated to fully exterminate Amaleiq. By
killing everyone but Agag, Sha'ul haMelekh didn't fulfil the mitzvah
-- which then turns the killing into genocide rather than mitzvah.

This line of reasoning presumes that there is no advantage to killing
some of Amaleiq, which in turn does not seem consistent with the
notion of it being a punishment.

Timkheh es zeikher Amaleiq implies that the problem is having anything
that makes us think of them and their values. The focus on us, and how
having them around will affect us. I could see constructing from this
a taam hamitzvah that has nothing to do with what they deserve.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv