[Avodah] animals and bechira??

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:13:40PM +0200, harchinam wrote:
: > 2- The neis was not considered to be in the ason seeing the angel, but
: > in the ason's response to the angel. Implying that animals generally
: > can see mal'akhim.

: How do you come to this? The ason's reaction seems to me to be less than
: miraculous; any animal might normally stop or walk in a different direction
: if it saw a person that it perceived as a threat -- and it is common that
: animals perceive humans as a threat at times, especially one holding a
: weapon [if animals do indeed see malachim]...

"This" was the second implication I drew from Avos listing "pi ha'ason". It
would seem that the mishnah is singling out the speaking, implying that the
rest of the donkey's responses were normal.

: turned away from the path, smooshed his rider up against something to avoid
: danger, and then stopped completely. It just doesn't seem like unusual
: behavior for an animal at all.

Nor did I mean it was. I meant "response" in dialog, not its reaction in
general.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is a drop of intellect drowning in a sea
micha at aishdas.org        of instincts.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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