[Avodah] torture in halacha???

[Zev Sero]

On 15/05/2012 1:52 PM, hankman wrote:
> Well what about cases where there is no “hitting,” but there is either physical or psychological pain, such as say, 1) sleep deprivation, 2) deprivation of food and water by a near starvation diet, 3) being forced to stand all day, 4)  getting a little more physical,  to be subjected to the much discussed water boarding, and I am sure we could dream up many others. What would these be considered if a father or rebbe tried them? I think most would think them highly abusive and asur but there is no “hitting” involved.

Either they are assault and therefore assur unless there's a specific
heter for them, or they are muttar, or there is some as-yet-unnamed
issur; but before discussing the parameters and limits of that issur
we must first establish that it exists.  Simply saying that "I don't
like it" is irrelevant.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon