[Avodah] taker but not giver

[Zev Sero]

On 5/2/23 15:26, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> The halakhah is that we are mechalel Shabbos for darkhei shalom.

No, that is *NOT* the halacha.

> Since
> darkhei shalom means emulating the One Who shehashalom shelo, and
> fulfilling vekhol nesivoseha shalom, then yes, of course, the halakhah
> is saying that having peaceful relations rises to the level of being
> dokheh Shabbos.

If that were so, then it would have applied in equal force before 1800.
Why does the Shulchan Aruch insist there is *no heter*?


On 5/2/23 15:26, Micha Berger wrote:
> So, it seems to me that our being taught as kids that "darkhei shalom"
> was permission to violate Shabbos because otherwise an anti-semite may
> someday kill one of us is simply part of the problem. Chazal's idiom is
> being misinterpreted because the people speaking can't believe Chazal
> would give such value to doing what's right when it comes to nakhriim.

This is simply not true.  Nowhere are we allowed to violate Shabbos 
because of darkei shalom.  And in fact Chazal did NOT permit us to 
violate Shabbos to save a nochri's life.  Nor did any rishon or acharon. 

As of the mid-to-late 18th century, AFAIK, the *undisputed* halacha 
was that it is *not* permitted.

The first heterim came from poskim in the early 19th century, and they 
were explicitly *not* mishum darkei shalom but mishum eiva.  Every 
earlier posek ruled out eiva on the grounds that the metzius, in their 
view, was that keeping shabbos at the expense of nochri lives would not 
lead to eiva.  The metzius changed with the Enlightenment, and in the 
19th century poskim realized that the modern nochrim would not be as 
understanding as their predecessors had been, so the halacha had to 
change.   But it was definitely because it would lead to pikuach nefesh 
for us, and anyone who claims anything else is forging the Torah.


-- 
Zev Sero            "Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread."
		     -- Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.