[Avodah] timtum halev

[Tal Moshe Zwecker]

I found this from an earlier  Post on Avoda 15:38
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol15/v15n038.shtml

Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 15:18:12 +0300
From: Moshe Feldman <moshe.feld... at gmail.com>
Subject: Timtum Ha'lev in situations where food is muttar me'ikar ha'din

cases where poskim said that something is muttar to eat but nevertheless
is metamtem es ha'lev:

a) SA Y.D. 91:7: a Jewish baby technically is allowed to nurse from a
non-Jewess, but should not do so because of timtum ha'lev.

b) Tzitz Eliezer 18:70 one is permitted to feed a sick person nonkosher
food, but it is better to be mechalel Shabbos for him rather than to
feed him nonkosher food because the latter is metamtem es halev.

In fact, in my Bar Ilan CD search I found that Mishne Halachos 16:137
specifically states that even where something is muttar to eat because
of bittul b'rov, nevertheless, one may be machmir not to eat it because
of timtum ha'lev. (To quote the Hebrew: "L'inyan bittul b'rov . . .im
hu yodea she'hadavar muttar ela she'eino rotzeh l'ochlo mishum davar
ha'tamei . . . harei hu metamtem es ha'lev . . ., harei hu oseh davar
tov b'ma she'eino ochel, keivan she'hu poresh atzmo mi'tzad teva ha'issur
she'hu metamtem es ha'lev, lo m'ta'am she'hu assur min ha'torah.")

When we learned Yoreh De'ah, my chavrusa and I theorized that Minhag
Ashkenaz was to be much more machmir than dina d'gemara because of the
fear of timtum ha'lev.

Also, I think that this ties into the machlokes of whether rov causes
issur to change into heter, or just is a hanhaga allowing us to eat
the food. Nifka mina: if a piece of issur is mixed with two pieces of
heter, is one person allowed to eat all three pieces? See discussion in
Beis Yosef Y.D. 109 summarizing the views of Rosh (yes), Rashba (yes,
but not together, just one after the other) and SeMaG--based on Tosfos
(no, because then it is definite that he eat an issur). Ramo paskens
that l'chatchila we are machmir.

Kol tuv,
Moshe




Kol Tuv,
R' Tal Moshe Zwecker
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