[Avodah] lo plog

[T613K at aol.com]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 26, Issue 171 dated 8/19/2009 R' Eli Turkel  
<eliturkel at gmail.com>
asked:  
 

>> Since it is brought I have asked people for years for any  rules when
lo plog applies.

....More generally in some cases we say X  is different than Y and so the
prohibition of Y does not apply and in other  cases we say lo plog <<

>>>>>
I am behind in my  Avodah reading so others may have responded to this 
before, but my impression is  that it is not possible to give a general rule 
about when "lo plug"  applies.  Not even theoretically possible.
 
In general, when X and Y are similar cases we try to be consistent and keep 
 the same rules for both, and therefore say "lo plug."  When X and Y are  
sufficiently dissimilar, we say that the two cases are so different from each 
 other that "lo plug" clearly does not apply, these are two entirely 
different  cases.   
 
However, there are not just two possibilities, yes/no or on/off for "X  is 
almost exactly the same as Y" and "X is entirely different from Y."  
 
Rather, there is a smeared, fuzzy continuum of possibilities all the way  
from "X is 99% the same as Y" to "X is only one percent the same as Y."  At  
the extremes all poskim will agree that X and Y are so similar that Lo Plug 
(or  all will agree that X and Y are so different that Lo Plug does not 
apply).   In between, along the smeared continuum of possibilities, reasonable 
people will  reasonably differ as to precisely where the preponderance 
changes from "Lo Plug"  to "Lo Plug is not applicable."  
 
Therefore there cannot be a simple rule, an on/off or yes/no rule, for when 
 Lo Plug does or does not apply, no simple algorithm that could be  applied 
to every single X and Y.   This is why you need a posek and  not a computer 
to answer halachic questions.
 
--Toby  Katz
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