[Avodah] Freeing a Slave

[Zev Sero]

On 3/08/2011 4:11 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> Again, "qal" means qulah, not easier (although the two concepts do overlap).

Then what is Leshon Y-mi for "light" or "easy"?

> It's also
> the meaning in EY in R' Yishmael's day, as in "qal vachomer".

Huh?  Kal vachomer means "light and heavy"; nothing to do with an attitude
of leniency or strictness.  It's the *argument* that is light or heavy,
not the practical outcome.  The equivalent in English is "a fortiori",
which means "from the stronger"; again referring to the argument as strong
or weak, not to the outcome.   Chumra and kula, OTOH, are about the outcome
being easy or difficult for a person to comply with, and thus have to do
with how much sympathy we should have for the person, and how far we should
go to make their lives easier.

-- 
Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
                 return to all the places that have been given to them.
		                            - Yitzchak Rabin