[Avodah] timtum halev

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Tue Mar 9 14:58:53 PST 2010


On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 12:42:33AM +0200, Tal Moshe Zwecker wrote:
: As far as I understand it timtum halev means that one's insight and
: intellect found in the heart are stuffed up and blocked up

So, if I understand you correctly...

1- Timtum haleiv can occur even if someone followed hilkhos birur, but
   happened to eat food that was lemaaseh treif.
2- Timrum haleiv refers to processes that impact one's bechirah.

Don't you see my problem with this?

Now it turns out that someone will become a worse person through no
fault of his own?!


Here's a startiling example... 2 chatichos cheilev and one of shuman,
but you don't know which is which. They are mutar. Even one after the
other. According to the Rosh -- even cooked together and eaten together.

It's NOT about acceptable risk. The risk of cheilev, and thus according
to all my respondants of timtum haleiv, is 100%. And yet, it's mutar.
So again I ask -- how could the RBSO and Chazal tell you it's okay to
eat something that causes timtum. And conversely -- what does "assur"
mean if not "don't do this -- it causes spiritual harm"?


FWIW, I think the question of whether the cheftzah of the mezuzah
protects beyond the protection of the maaseh mitzvah is part of the
machloqes between the Chassidim and Misnagdim. (Or whether the cheftzah
of cheilev is metamteim beyond the issur of eating it.) As I said when
I re-awakened the topic this time around, the Nefesh haChaim is quite
clear. Only neshamos of people combine the kochos of all the olamos, and
therefore the only way maaseh can impact higher olamos is via its impact
on a neshmah. Something a person can't be aware of doesn't fit his system.

Or REED's, who sees metaphysical effects in relativistic terms -- a
person's fate is a consequence of his spiritual "frame of reference".
Even neis vs teva is a matter of how the soul looks at the reality.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Every second is a totally new world,
micha at aishdas.org        and no moment is like any other.
http://www.aishdas.org           - Rabbi Chaim Vital
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