[Avodah] Maakeh

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 07:43:51AM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: Rather, I would argue that the maakeh is inherently a less-than-100%
: protection, and doesn't even claim to offer 100% protection.
: 
: Mechaber Choshen Mishpat 427:5 writes, "The maakeh must be no less
: than 10 tefachim high, so that a faller will not fall from it. And the
: wall must be strong so that a person who leans on it will not fall."

... and if maaqeh were about safety, then why is property owned by a
tzibbur patur?

I therefore suggested here a couple of times that maaqeh is about
reinforcing in oneself the importance of safety more than about
safety itself.

I had the following discussion with an LOR. At the time, his shul's
duchan ran the length of the front of the shul, and had steps down
to floor level, across only the middle third. The two sides were
3-1/2' high walls.

So I asked the rav of this shul why there was no maaqeh. He said it
didn't need one, as it was a shul.

I pointed to the huge mezuzah on the doorway. That isn't needed either,
technically.

But, the rabbi noted, it wouldn't feel to the tzibbur like a Jewish
place, a maqom qadosh, without one.

My point exactly. This is a teaching opportunity about the role of
BALC in defining qeduashah.

Nothing changed until the entire shul was refurbished from the old
facing the center amphitheter shaped structure (think a less grandiose
version of the old LSS) to a grid of tables facing mizrach arangement.
Then the question became moot.

(I should note I knew said LOR in YU. I wasn't stam viciting a shul and
being a nudnik. I was prevailing on a decades long acquaitanceship and
being a nudnik.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is equipped with such far-reaching vision,
micha at aishdas.org        yet the smallest coin can obstruct his view.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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