[Avodah] If you have an electronic water meter, can you turn on your faucet on Shabbos?

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 01, 2012 at 08:59:28AM -0500, Lisa Liel wrote:
>> And I would be happier if when I cut off the chicken's head it  
>> wouldn't die, but it will.

> Would you really?  I think not.  You want the chicken to be dead.

The idiom is not from a case that is mutar or assur, it's just the
source of the idiom. I'm not even sure the origin is halachic. For
all I know, it's a local Babylonian expression. "Pesiq reishei"
doesn't appear in the Y-mi, and in fact there is speculation that not
only doen't the phrase exist, in EY they didn't have the halachic
concept altogether.

But in any case, it's just an idiom, not an legal case. After all,
cutting off the head would be mechateikh regardless of the chicken
a"h's demise.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha