[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[Daniel Eidensohn]

Concerning tinok shenishba we are dealing with social engineering which 
is largely dependent upon the evaulation of the posek regarding the 
impact on the society and the likelihood that a person can become more 
observant. The Rambam has described tinok shenishba as "like ones". 
Which means that in fact he is shogeg and yet he says that we shouldn't 
be so fast to kill them - even though they deserve capital punishment 
for their behavior. We can attempt to build the concept inductively from 
the sources starting from Chazal - but it simply doesn't work. Therefore 
we have to start from the contemporary poskim for the simple reason that 
they determine what we should do. Even so there is still an apparent 
conceptual inconsistency. The simple explanation is that the term is not 
used consistly except as a justification for leniency where it is 
believed that leniency will best serve the goals of the posek and his 
community. The nature of that justification varies.

Let me bring the Nodah beYehuda who asks why should the ignorant be 
punished. He states simply that shogeg is ones but an ones that must 
involve a mistake. The mistake could be the result of a ruling of beis 
din or it could be because of the errors of an educational system.

*Nodah BeYehuda[1] <#_ftn1> (Medora Tenina Y.*D. #96):… We need to note 
the halacha that if an individual sins as the result of following the 
psak of beis din – he is obligated to bring a chatas as is stated in 
Horios (3a)…The Rambam (Hilchos Shegagos 3:1) brings this as halacha. 
This seems astounding. Why should an individual be obligated to bring a 
korbon…what did he do wrong? In what sense did he sin? There is no 
greater ones than this to follow the ruling of beis din as the Torah 
commands us to obey them (Devarim 17:11) because even if they say on 
right that it is left - their rulings  must be obeyed. Consequently an 
individual has no right to question their rulings. So why is this 
considered shogeg and not ones?…We can answer that an individual who 
follows the rulling of the court is obligated to bring a korbon even 
though it is in fact ones because of the command of the Torah to listen 
to them. Nevertheless this ones is the result of a mistake because the 
court erred in their ruling. Therefore it is classified as shogeg – 
except if every Jew erred then they are all exempt from a korbon. This 
is not because of ones - but because since the court itself is obligated 
to bring a korbon it exempts those who listen to them from a korbon. In 
contrast when some individuals follow their ruling the court is not 
obligated to bring a korbon but only the individual. Therefore this 
distinction [between whether the ones was the result of error and is 
thus called shogeg or whether there was no error and it is called 
halachic ones] gives some answer to the question of the Lechem Mishna 
(Hilchos Shegagos 5:5 and 14:3) where he asks on the Rambam(Hilchos 
Shegagos 14:3) who writes, “If a court declares that Shabbos is over … 
this is not a ruling but rather a mistake. And whoever does melacha is 
obligated and the court is exempt. Similarly if the court permits a 
married woman to remarry based on two witnesses that her first husband 
died and afterwards the first husband reappears – this is not called a 
ruling but a mistake and the woman and her second husband must bring a 
chatas because of their error.”



Daniel Eidensohn