[Avodah] isnt koach of being maykil greater??

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon Aug 15 14:22:28 PDT 2011


On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:01:40PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> Oh, and the answer to the question in the Subject header is that you have
> completely misunderstood that line.  It takes more certainty to be meikil,
> precisely because one may always be machmir, whether it's necessary or not,
> so when in doubt that's what one should do...

I don't think this is quite correct either. (And we last visiteed this
just last March!)

The idiom is used twice in shas, Berakhos 60a and Beitza 2b. As Rashi
puts it in Beitza ("deheteira adif leih"), "tov lo lehashmi'einu koach
divrei hamatir".

When there is a machloqes tannaim that has two possible cases, and one
has more reason to be pasqened lequlah than the other. The makhloqes
will be phrased as being about the more machmir case, because it's more
important to show how meiqil the tanna who is matir actually is being.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A cheerful disposition is an inestimable treasure.
micha at aishdas.org        It preserves health, promotes convalescence,
http://www.aishdas.org   and helps us cope with adversity.
Fax: (270) 514-1507         - R' SR Hirsch, "From the Wisdom of Mishlei"



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