[Avodah] Should Shiurim be Corrected to Archeological Data

[Micha Berger]

We've discussed this in the past. R Natan Slifkin always chimed in
with a firm "yes" -- such as in his "kezayis chart" which is a life-sized
picture of an olive.

I was never so sure. And I posted a whole bunch of math computing the
ammah from Y-m's water tunnel or marks found on Har haBayis, and still
concluded with doubts that it matters.

This morning, when the subject came up on Facebook, I was less certain
which way to go and spelled out three possibilities. I want to share it
here, where people might actually spend time looking up details to fill
in or refute...

My non-answer:
3- maybe our system of shiurim is not broken because law is law, or
1- maybe it should be fixed using archeology, or
2- maybe it should be fixed using today's olive, arm, and coinage.

1- "Law is law":
It depends whether the shift in shiurim is binding halakhah even though
we are aware that it happened and how. (Or maybe more stringent shiurim
could be binding minhag, if not binding on the pesaq level.)

Halakhah is legislation, not fact-finding.

And if your community converged on a finite range of values, staying
within that range may well be halachically binding.

2- Historical measures:
Well, while some of that legislation was based on formalizing what was
done mimetically (eg R Chaim Naeh's shiurim) yishuv hayashan), much/most
was based on beliefs that they were preserving / recreating the old
shiurim -- whether we look at the Rambam or the Nodeh biYhudah.

So maybe we follow Chazal because the shitos that drift from their
measures in error are non-binding because they are just that, in error.

3- Using today's measures:
It could be that we shouldn't say "law is law" for the reverse reason
-- when dealing with one's one carrying on Shabbos, the measure (at
least according to the Arukh haShulchan) is 4 of one's own amos. Not a
standard measure, but take out your arm (presumably you have mainstream
structure) and measure it. The AhS says the role of the standard ammah
is for communal things -- like an eiruv can't be kosher for a tall guy
but pasul for his 5' high wife because the gaps are more than 16 of her
amos. And that's due to population statistics!

And there is strong reason to believe a perutah just means the smallest
coinage where you are. Less than one coin isn't really money.

(Wow, did that open a pandora's box in my head. Maybe a kezayis is just a
small food staple, and we shouldn't even be looking at olives in today's
world! A kechumus!)

So maybe in order to degine "4 amos" for today's communities, we need
to take statistics on today's Jews' arms.


Before getting to eiruvin in AhS Yomi, I was firmly in the law-is-law
camp. But I think the AhS holds that shiurim are personal, and any
fixing would be against today's people.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes
micha at aishdas.org        exactly the right measure of himself,  and
http://www.aishdas.org   holds a just balance between what he can
Fax: (270) 514-1507      acquire and what he can use." - Peter Latham