[Avodah] Do we Owe Respect to Old Bones?

[Arie Folger]

RAM asked me:

> How would you respond to R' Micha Berger's question, which was:
>
>> What about the bones of ... Adnei hasadeh -- which it is a
>> violation of retzhichah to kill?
>
> My -- probably mistaken -- understanding is that Adnei Hasadeh are
> precisely those homo sapiens who were not endowed with Tzelem
> Elokim. Is it possible for there to be a being which is assur to murder,
> yet not be metameh?

My response? It fits perfectly, as I never suggested that it would
have been permitted to murder a pre-Adam homo sapiens sapiens. That
would have been a gaping ethical hole in any theory suggesting Adam
was not the first homo sapiens sapiens, just the first to be endowed
with a tzelem.

However, given that pre-Adam homo sapiens sapiens (and reasonably, any
homo sapiens, be it a neatherthal or whatever, too) would still be
protected by the prohibition on murder, and nonetheless, unlike later
humans, his bones would still not convey tum'a upon direct contact
(maga' or massa', not ohel, which is anyway restricted to Beney
Yisrael), well that would mean that indeed, such old bones could be
kept in museum displays, unlike, say, bones unearthed even in a pagan
dig, from about 5000 years ago.

-- 
Arie Folger,
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