[Avodah] the godfather is innocent, should you want to punish him?

[Zev Sero]

On 1/06/2011 10:47 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 10:12:14PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> Good point; you're right.  Now my question becomes why he's responsible;
>> a hired killer is not like an animal, after all.  Unless you say that once
>> a person has disclosed to you that he's depraved (e.g. by advertising his
>> services as a hit man) you have to treat him like an animal who has no
>> bechira?  I don't know; it doesn't sound quite right.
>
> Back a step... What's the border between ein shaliach lidvar aveirah,
> mesayei'ah, lifnei iveir (not that I think that applies, I'm just trying
> to map out the whole field), the chotei umachti and the meisis.

Well, I thought I had meisis covered.  His crime is the attempt itself,
and he's just as guilty if he fails as he is if he succeeds.  The Torah
says "ki vikesh".


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