[Avodah] Rov Jews in EY?

[Zev Sero]

Arie Folger wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 5:47 AM, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
>> On the contrary, that is a posek taking the exact opposite position;
>> that, as the lashon implies, this was a specific takana: they did not
>> move from that place until they did this.  It wasn't a general psak
>> din about anyone who has forgotten his origins.
> 
> Correct, but it contradicts your suggestion that it was about ruling
> that they never were Jewish in the first place, or that they lost
> their Jewishness on account of a particular trait.

You've got the wrong end of the stick.  That was RAL's suggestion,
which I didn't find convincing, for exactly the reason you are giving.


> According to the
> 'Hatam Sofer's reading, which, if not for the fact that it is
> revolutionary, is actually the easiest, most straughtforward reading
> of the sugya, it was by rabbinic act that each of the groups (Kuttim
> and exiled 10 Shevatim) had their Jewishness actively removed.

Exactly.  That is what the pashtus haloshon means.  And it's a whole
let less revolutionary to say that the Sanhedrin can turn a yid into
a goy, than to be mechadesh a whole new exception to the traditional
definition of Jewishness, that somehow in 2000 years never made it
into writing in any sefer.

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