[Avodah] Kelayim - Holy or Evil?

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 12:12:40AM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: In contrast, if something is a mitzva, then it is not an aveira -- by  
: definition. If Hashem Himself commanded it, then it is not an  aveirah....

The question as to whether hatzalas nefashos is matir Shabbos or docheh
Shabbos is an open one. In fact, many (R' Shelomo Kluger, among others)
understand this to be a machloqes between the SA (328:4) and the Rama
(328:12). The SA appears to hold that one needn't minimize the melakhah
involved in saving a life, while the Rama rules that one must. The
Ramban (Toras haAdam, "Sakanah") holds like the Rama, citing a beraisa
on Shabbos 128b that says one should deliver a baby kele'acheir yad,
if there is no additional risk incurred.

If it's dechuyah, then we have a case where HQBH told us to do something,
but an aveirah is still being done. One won't get any "demerits" for
the aveirah, but there is still a violation that must be minimized.

Life is complicated, and many of our harder decisions involve conflicting
values. And those values are often expressed in din. If neither din is
hutrah, we are being told to violate one for the sake of the other.

> How could Hashem forbid something in one place that He mandates in
> another? Well, getting back to the subject line of this thread --
> "holy or evil?" -- I don't think you could possibly call shatnez
> "evil" since the K'G wore shatnez, but you could possibly say that it
> is an evil /act/ to misappropriate something holy and use it for your
> own purposes or use it in a manner that the Torah forbids.

In the case of shaatnez, I see three possibilities:

1- Shaatnez is bad, but bigdei kehunah provide an overriding reason to
   wear it anyway. The damage caused by wearing shaatnez (or by shechting
   a qorban on Shabbos) is overridden by the far greater spiritual
   benefit. And then we must ask whether we are protected from that
   damage and hutrah, or the damage is a worthwhile cost for the far
   greater gain -- dechuyah.

2- Wearing shaatnez in weekday clothes is in the same family as me'ilah --
   shaatnez is so singlularly for bigdei kehunah, wearing it for yourself
   is wrong. Ie the problem is that shaatnez is too good.

3- Whether or not shaatnez is good depend on context, not that something
   is too wrong without an overriding positive provided by one context
   (#1), or too good to be used in another context (#2). Not sure how
   to fill in details on this one. However, RET's example of shechitah
   vs meliqah might be a case of this.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is our choices...that show what we truly are,
micha at aishdas.org        far more than our abilities.
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