[Avodah] worst aveirah

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 12:05:41PM -0500, I wrote:
: But none of the three yeihareig ve'al ha'avor are pushiable by seqilah.

I was corrected in private email:
> (1) Avoda zara is punishable by s'kila.
> (1.5) The case of arayos where the din is derived is na'ara ham'orasa,
> which is also s'kila.

Still, it's possible to be over a yeihareig ve'al ya'avor without violating
an issur punishable (if there were eidus, hasra'ah, etc..) by the most chamur
of oneshim.

: They're clearly worse -- which means there must be another dimension
: than that used by derashos miqal vachomer.

RZS asked:
> Why are those three clearly worse?  Who says that the severity of an
> averah is what should determine whether it's nidche by pikuach nefesh?

In the qal vachomer dimension, the fact that these is a chiyuv by one
that isn't applicable to the other ranks it as more chamur. That's how
qv"ch is done, no? Which implies that those which are yeihareig ve'al
ya'avor are being called more chamur.

Then he asked:
> For instance, murder is on the list not because of any measurement of
> its severity but because it's not logical for pikuach nefesh to override
> it: "who says your blood is redder than the other person's?"

I would say that the quote is exactly why it's so severe.

> Also, it's obvious that kibbush ha'aretz overrides PKN; otherwise it
> would be impossible.  The reason it's not listed among "the three" is
> simple: it's an asei, not a lo sa'aseh, so the language "yehareg ve'al
> ya`avor" is simply inapplicable.

That's a logical guess. But just a guess.

> And yet nobody will argue that
> because it overrides PKN it's therefore more important than other
> mitzvos.

I find this a less logical guess. If nothing else, a person who is
willing to risk their own neck to do a mitzvah must be doing something
very important, regardless of how we would otherwise rank the mitzvah.
But that's a different axis.

> That refers to mitzvos, not to averos.  We *do* know the ranking of
> averos, by the punishment they attract...

Do you mean asei vs lav? Because fulfilling a lo saasei is avoiding the
aveirah, and thus one would guess that its value is the negative of the
ranking of the aveirah.

I find RZS's response flawed because it too presumes that there is only
one definition of "chamur" or "worse". It seems clear to me that any
tanking of mitzvos that assume shaveh lekhol nefesh is incomplete. The
actual value of a given mitzvah or the cost of an aveirah, includes
issues like where the person's nequdas habechirah is, lefum tza'arah agra,
and other issues that don't allow a context-free ranking of the 613.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter