[Avodah] The MB and Spiders

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 03:49:35PM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> The following is from today's Hakhel Email Bulletin:
>> 1.  The Mishna Berura notes that there is a misconception among some  
>> that spiders can be dangerous to humans and that killing them is  
>> permissible on Shabbos.  This, he writes, is not true, and they are  
>> not to be treated as snakes or scorpions.

> I sent the following to the editor of this bulletin.

> WADR to the MB, please see  
> http://www.termite.com/spider-identification.html ...

But in practice, the odds of anyone one of us finding a dangerous
spider in our homes and needing to kill it on Shabbos is minimal. You
saw the wooden structures the CC lived among (the picture of him is in
front of one) and it was vanishing small in his mileau. Lo kol shekein
for Hakhel's readership.

The truth is that for the spiders most of us find in our homes,
the biggest outcome from killing a spider is a greater likelihood of
reflexively swatting at and killing a mosquito or fly.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha