[Avodah] Hanaah from Chametz

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 11:44:57PM +0000, Kenneth Miller wrote:
: Mishne Berura 448:28 -- "Because he gets hanaah, in that he fulfills
: his desire to satisfy the animal. And see the Beis Yosef, that even if
: he finds chametz which isn't his own, it is also assur to throw it in
: front of a dog."
...
: >From there, my mind jumped to another situation which seems very
: similar. Suppose one is in an ordinary non-Jewish supermarket on Chol
: Hamoed Pesach, and a non-Jewish shopper asks me, "Sir, I cannot reach
: those cookies. Could you please hand me that box of cookies?" Being a
: nice guy, it is my nature to want to be helpful, and so I cheerfully
: pass it to him. Was that mutar or assur?

I would think assur for two reasons.

First, hana'ah.

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 11:07:21AM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> A possible chiluk: your hana'ah, to the extent that you have any, is from
> handing him the box, not the contents; it would be the same regardless of
> what the contents were.  He could just as easily have asked you to hand
> down a box of matzah, or a roll of toilet paper.

And the animal could just as well been given non-chameitz feed. The
hana'ah isn't from the wheat -- had you found rice based food you would
have been just as glad.

Second issur: it's not mei'ever lanahar so it's not lifnei iveir, but
isn't it mesayei'ah?

Back to RAM's post:
: Someone suggested that this might be another example of Eivah and/or
: Chilul haShaym. I certainly don't want him going home and complaining,
: "That Jew was standing right there and wouldn't help me out!"

But if it's assur, it's assur. You wouldn't violate Shabbos derabbanan
for this level of eivah, would you?

What I do in awkward situations that I can't get out of is share with
them my experience. Here it would invite empathy rather than enmity.
Give them a simplistic level of the points of this discussion against,
say something like, "It's the very inclination to help another Jew that
makes it hard to help you ignore this gift of Passover. You know, garlic
salt and butter on matzah tastes pretty good..." (That last line must be
said with a huge wry grin to work, so that they know you're half-joking
and not giving real diet advice...)

If the conversation goes well, maybe you'll have a guest for a Shabbos
ch"m meal!

But at least you'll create understanding and get both of you a few
moments of mitzvah of talmud Torah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When memories exceed dreams,
micha at aishdas.org        The end is near.
http://www.aishdas.org                   - Rav Moshe Sherer
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