[Avodah] Bittul, No Discernible Taste
Arie Folger
afolger at aishdas.org
Sun Jun 19 23:02:52 PDT 2011
RMR wrote:
> This is the issue that HaRav Auerbach is clarifying. Afilu BeElef Lo Battel
> means not that it is NEVER Battel but that it is not Battel as long as it is
> humanly discernible BY TASTE (what other device did Chazal have at their
> disposal?).
Actually, as he nowhere states this is an issue of taste, I would
first of all state this in more general terms: itś never battel - EVEN
WHEN LACKING DISCERNIBLE TASTE - as long as it is discernible by HUMAN
PERCEPTION.
Then, I think it becomes rather straightforward to imagine a different
type of perception at play here. Basically, if there is so little of
the offending substance that considering its presence becomes
ludicrous, since it is imperceptible (i.e. bread thrown into the
rather large Kineret), then it no longer makes any sense to say it ain
battel. As some Oved posted, if we look tightly enough, there is
chametz everywhere, on a microscopic scale. But Rabotai, you all agree
that we don check for bugs or chametz using a magnifying glass, so we
all agree that perception is key here. The rest follows.
--
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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