[Avodah] Selling whiskey/bourbon

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 05:36:48PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> : I don't understand the question.  Those who have this minhag are choosing
> : to be machmir.  They don't claim -- do they? -- that everyone *must* be
> : machmir like them, or else they deserve to be punished...
> 
> I'm saying that those who have this minhag who then routinely rely on
> those who aren't machmir like them aren't avoiding the sale of chameitz
> gamur anyway, so why bother?

Because they *are* avoiding it.  And they hold that it's better to do so,
presumably because there is some flaw in the sale.  Or just in case there
is such a flaw.  But -- leshitasam -- why should they punish the shopkeeper
who wasn't machmir?  Did he have some kind of obligation to do so?

That's why it's important to remember that ChShAhP is a knass, not an
inherent issur.  It applies to the person, not to the chametz itself.
A shopkeeper who didn't get rid of his chametz is punished by not being
able to sell the stock he illegally kept.  Next time he'll know that it
pays to obey the law.  But in this case, he did obey the law; he just
didn't add an extra chumra that nobody claims he must.  So there's no
reason to punish him.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher