[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Zev Sero]

On 6/07/2012 12:05 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 06, 2012 at 06:15:04PM +0300, Doron Beckerman wrote:
> : As RZS said, Talmidei Chachamim are allowed to volunteer. See the RYM
> : Tickuczinky piece I've linked to a few times. It isn't even relevant
> : whether David Hamelech was a TC. The question is drafting them, which Asa
> : was punished for.
>
> Asa didn't draft them for national defense, he had them gathering the
> stones off Ramah and building with them. Melakhim I 15:23, and the
> gemara's calling them an angary<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angary>.
> (Thanks to RZS for identifying the term for me.)

This *was* a national defense project.  Ramah was an enemy fortress
besieging Yerushalayim; Asa conscripted the entire nation to demolish it.


> It certainly wasn't for a milkhemes mitzvah, since R' Yehudah holds
> Asa accountable for drafting grooms and brides

He does nothing of the sort.


-- 
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