[Avodah] Beit din shel Matah vs. Maalah

[Michael Makovi]

>From [Areivim[ Sugihara, about righteous gentiles who have saved Jews

> > Nevertheless i have seen shitot that these people will burn in hell
> > because they worshipped AZ.  AZ is one of the 7 mitzvot of bnei noach
> > while saving Jews is not a mitzvah for them.  I dont agree but again
> > major figures have said this view
> > R' Eli Turkel

>  I don't see any way for a BD shel Mattah to avoid that view; but I've
>  never seen anybody claim that BD shel Maalah is restricted by the narrow
>  confines of halacha.  I thought the point of BD shel Maalah is that it
>  doesn't judge according to "ha'adam yir'eh la'enayim" (or even, like
>  Moshiach, by smell) but by completely different criteria.  Isn't that
>  why "ein ata yodea' matan s'charan shel mitzvot", or the punishment for
>  averot?
>  R' Zev Sero

Indeed - BD shel matah cannot decide that the thief is exempt because
he was poor and desperate or because he wasn't taught growing up that
thievery is wrong; so too BD shel matah cannot accept the purported
teshuva of a criminal. But shel maalah in all these cases can exempt.

In the third perek of Makkot, starting in the beginning of the Gemara,
13a bottom, there is a machloket whether a person can receive both (1)
lashes and (2) karet or death.

There are (of course) a few opinions:
- R' Yishmael says one getting lashed, can indeed get karet or death.
- R' Akiva says one getting lashed can get karet, but not death.
- R' Yitchak says that one getting lashed can get neither karet nor death.

Rabbi Akiva says (in a baraitha), "Hayavei keritot yeshno b'klal
malkut arba'im. She'im asu teshuva, beit din shel maalah mohalin
lahem. Hayavei mitot beit din eino b'klal malkut arba'im she'im asu
teshuva, ein beit din shel matah mohalin lahem."

A few things we see then: BD shel maalah can forgive karet if you do
teshuva. Also, since R' Akiva specifically says BD shel **matah* will
not forgive mita if you do teshuva, apparently shel maalah will
forgive if you do teshuva.

There is a makhloket about exactly what R' Akiva means, beginning at
the middle of 13b. But at the very bottom of 13b onto 14a, Ravina
concludes that R' Akiva means that if a person does teshuva, shel
maalah forgives the karet. As to an objection that was made that maybe
the person hasn't done teshuva, and so he'll be getting both karet and
lashes, which violates the rule of one-crime-one-punishment, Ravina
responds that karet is not definite because one can easily get out of
it via teshuva, and so the person is getting only one definite
punishment, viz. lashes. Only death and lashes are inevitable (because
shel matah cannot forgive), and therefore the one-crime-one-punishment
rule rules out getting both death and lashes.

My rabbi brought a teshuva, maybe from the Noda b'Yehuda (but I don't
know) that expanded on the idea that a beit din shel matah cannot
judge your intentions and thoughts but rather it judges only your
actions and punishes accordingly, while shel maalah judges everything
(such as extenuating circumstances, eg. poor hungry thief) and also
can accept your teshuva.

Mikha'el Makovi