[Avodah] “the miracle of judging by smell” was (Re: R. Akiva, Bar Kochba and Zecharya HaNovi)

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon Oct 23 13:16:56 PDT 2017


On Mon, Oct 23, 2017 at 02:25:10AM -0400, hankman via Avodah wrote:
:                                                           . Furthermore,
: in the category of cases like moreid and shehasho'o tzricha, all the
: Melech needs to do is simply assert his position as he feels correct
: for ANY Melech -- he does not even need the power of moreiach veda'in to
: prove his position. So mimonafshoch, in either case he either may not,
: or has no need of the power to be moreiach veda'in.

If I understood the Rambam this way:
It would be good to have a king who knows with certainty which dinim
need shoring up because he can smell that their violation is rampant.

Or, in determining the convicted's guilt:
Let's say some sin became common place, and hasha'ah zerikhah that the
king enforce a capital punishment for it.

But say I understand him as per REMT's post, noting that in 3:10 the
Rambam singles out the king's power to kill murderers (eg without
hasda'ah, where there was only eid echad, etc...) -- implying that
retzichah yes, other issurim, the king could not. (Mikelal lav...)
3:8 really only discussed rebellion and lesse majeste (moreid bemekeh
and mevazeh es hamelekh o hamchorfo). I don't see hasha'ah tzeikhah in
the Rambam; I'm taking your word for it. Still, I can ask the parallel
question:

Wouldn't if be far far better if the melekh hamashiach had a supernal
ability to know who is really guilty, and not kill the wrong guy?

He might not legally need the power, but it would be a good thing for a
king to have in order to be effective and fair.

So I'm not sure your argument holds.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Every child comes with the message
micha at aishdas.org        that God is not yet discouraged with
http://www.aishdas.org   humanity.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Rabindranath Tagore



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