[Avodah] Gezeiras haKasuv

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 08:38:23AM -0700, Harry Maryles wrote:
: Minor quibble: AIUI Seir B'Isha Erva is not a Gezeras HaKasuv. It
: is a D'Oraisa MeiDivrei Sofrim. There is no explicit pasuk that says a
: married woman must cover her hair. It is extrapolated from Sotah.

I don't understand how you use these terms. Until this email causing my
current confusion, I thought:

divrei soferim: a derabbanan created by someone serving the role later
    called "rav" who happens to be a navi and therefore knows HQBH
    agrees with the taqanah. Nevu'ah can't create a din, this is clearly
    derabbanan; but one POST FACTO ratified by HQBH.

    E.g. the whole issue of whether megillah is derabbanan or midivrei
    soferim, or midivrei soferim for men and derabbanan for women.

gezeiras hakasuv: I took to mean that we do simply because the Torah
    says so, and we therefore divorce its details from any rules we
    can comprehend. (Kind of like a mitzvah could be a choq, but specific
    dinim within a mitzvah that makes sense overall could be gezeiros
    hakasuv.)

I don't think I ever thought about whether derashos could be gezeiros
hakasuv. But that's not relevent here, since the deduction is sevara
(a logical deduction), not derashah (via the 7/13/19/32 middos). If
the sotah uncovers her hair, then we deduce from needing to state this
exception that the rule is a married woman would cover hers. ("The
exception that proves the rule.")

Interestingly, Googling "gezeras hakasuv derashah" found
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol14/v14n093.shtml#01>, where R' Akiva
Miller (2005) posted pretty much the same argument I made about how
hair covering differs from other forms of ervah as being caused by a
different issur rather than erva causing the issur. And then, as I just
did, used it to argue that we therefore don't know the point of the
issur and can't deduce whether or not human hair sheitlach are a bad idea.

(RAM and I have been on the same email lists for well over a decade;
I wonder if we're passing the same idea back and forth across each other.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When memories exceed dreams,
micha at aishdas.org        The end is near.
http://www.aishdas.org                   - Rav Moshe Sherer
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