[Avodah] Timtum Halev

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' David I. Cohen asked:

> It is as is there is some kind of biochemical reaction
> effecting a non-corporeal, spiritual entity, the human
> neshama.

Close, but you'll be even closer if you replace "biochemical" with "metaphysical". The biochemistry of shechted beef and non-shechted beef are identical; the differences are real, but lie in realms inaccessable to science.

I do believe (or suspect) that our actions do indeed cause these sort of effects, and that these causes and effects follow strict rules, not unlike the laws which our science teachers taught us. Among these rules might be "mida k'neged mida", which causes the effects to be relative to the causes, so that a meizid gets worse effects than a shogeg, and a mitzvah with kavana has better effects than a mitzva without kavana. And there are many such rules which comes into play. They all work together in concert, each playing its role.

> The discussion has become bio-mechanistic, e.g.does the
> consumption of x amount cause it, does bitul do away with
> it? etc. Where does the intent of the actor come into play?

Yes, mechanistic is an apt description. If you put this sort of gasoline into an engine you can expect these results, and if you make that adjustment to the engine it will work a bit differently, all following clearly delineated laws of chemistry and physics. But only an expert can claim to have a good understanding of how they interact.

Even the experts don't always agree on how to understand these things. It seems to me that in the dispute over whether Chilul Shabos for Sakana is "hutrah" or "dechuyah", there is comparatively little difference in Halacha L'Maaseh. The main differences are in these metaphysical areas.

Factors like bitul and intent come into play whenever the halachah considers them significant. However the halachah deigns to view the case, that's how the metaphysical ripple effects will play out. "K'shem shematirin b'veis din shel matah, kach yihyu mutarim b'veis din shel maalah."

> If someone holds be down and forces me to eat a kazayit
> of treif, does that cause timtum halev, while if I
> voluntarily consume a minuscule amount it doesn't?

Well, given that "chetzi shiur assur min haTorah", voluntarily consuming a minuscule amount WILL cause timtum to a small degree. Whether it is smaller than your example of oness, or not quite as small, is far above my pay scale.

> I would think that maybe the timtum caused by inadvertent
> consumption (or inadvertent failure to perform a particular
> mitzva correctly, such as wearing tefilin you didn't know
> where not kosher) is the fact that the person did not care
> enough to be careful enough, which, therefore causes a
> chisaron in his neshama.

I totally agree that in such a case, the causes and effects are exactly as you describe. But what would you say about a case where a person *did* care enough, and *was* very careful, but stumbled nevertheless? Even the very best of hechsherim is not perfect; if someone totally innocently ate such food, and it turned out to be treif, would you say that it is not m'tamtem his lev even a tiny bit? What about someone whose tefillin had been checked over the years by a dozen expert sofrim, and only decades later was it discovered that an entire word was missing; Hashem can give him all sorts of credits for trying, but do you think that he'll really get full credit as if the word had been there all along?

> In this way, one could at least argue that relying on
> bitul is a permissive but not optimal way to behave, and,
> therefore can still cause a timtum ( or conversely that it
> is perfectly legitimate and causes no harm).

Or even further: Some poskim hold that (at least in some cases) it is *wrong* to avoid eating the nullified food, because it displays a lack of faith in the halachic system, and in the One Who gave it to us.

Akiva Miller

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