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

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Moshe Y. Gluck wrote:
> Rambam, Rotzeich U'shmiras Hanefesh, 2:2-5, specifically,
> the end of Halachah 2.

That paragraph should be required reading for this thread. But beware! Taken out of context -- i.e., without Halacha 3 -- it will be terribly understood.

Halacha 2 does equate one who hires a murderer with the one who throws the victim to a lion, in that both are exempt from capital punishment. However it seems clear to me that Halacha 3 there explains that this is a technicality, specifically due to the way certain pesukim were phrased.

Thus, it seems to me that the p'tur for one who throws the victim to a lion CANNOT be expanded to the general principle of "ein shaliach l'dvar aveira."

And if so, then the case of the hired murderer might also not be all-encompassing. It could well be that although the one who hires a murderer is exempt from capital punishment on the technicality of the pesukim, there might be other cases where "ein shaliach l'dvar aveira" doesn't apply and the hirer IS responsible.

This brings us into the areas of grama and such, which I am not knowledgable enough to comment on. But if there are any precedents in halacha for pinning responsibility on the human who sends an animal to do something, I suspect that those precedents might be useful for the case of sending a totally innocent and unwitting yeshiva boy.

Akiva Miller

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