[Avodah] A Mamzer Marrying a Shifchah

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger asked:

> Possible ways out:
> a- Is DDD in this sense the law on the books, or the de facto
> reality? And does your country have enough violators (eg in the
> prostitution trade) that we can say buying people qualifies as
> de facto effective (even if illegal)?

I recall discussing this before, usually in the context of driving over the posted speed limit. IIRC, we concluded that DDD does not follow the law as passed by the legislators, but rather the law as enforced by the police. Thus, for example, if the posted speed limit is 55 mph, but the policy is to ignore anyone driving less than 65, then the DDD speed limit is 65.

I suppose there are some countries where there are so many problems that the police choose to spend their time on things other than prostitution; in such a case, an argument could be made that DDD no longer applies to prostitution in that country. But in a country where the police *do* enforce such laws (however weakly), DDD would still ban it.

On the other hand, when Rav Moshe Feinstein wrote his teshuva (Igros Moshe Yoreh Deah 3:35) about smoking marijuana in 1973, he gave no less than six reasons to forbid it, and DDD was NOT among them. We can only speculate why.

Akiva Miller

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