[Avodah] shabbas//mishum eiva, etc???

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 07:35:21PM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
:>  I'm  arguing that preserving human dignity and avoiding enmity are both
:> chiyuvim  deOraisa. (At least there is a consistent trend emerging to
:> my madness.)

: In certain contexts you may well be right but you have to be careful, that  
: can be a slippery slope.  I remember a Conservative rabbi who claimed that  
: Judaism is in favor of gay rights because of "human dignity."

So, let's phrase this halachically rigorously: Preserving human dignity
is a deOraisa, and according to the gemara it can therefore trump another
deOraisa besheiv ve'al ta'aseh, and perhaps other criteria must be met.

Saying something is deOraisa doesn't mean ignoring the huterah / dechuyah
rules of which to observe when in conflict with another deOraisa. One
might argue that the whole point of phrasing religion as a legal system
is to anchor the changes that one can make to religious behavior and
ethics to well defined modes of evolution. Otherwise, the religion would
end up being about our zeitgeist informed guesses of what G-d wants.
This way, we follow His instructions to determine which modalities of
behavior, which derakhim and potential derakhim and their nafqos mina
lemaaseh, are valid.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Good decisions come from experience;
micha at aishdas.org        Experience comes from bad decisions.
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