[Avodah] THE MEANING OF ROV AS PER THE RAMBAM

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2023 at 06:53:14PM -0500, Brent Kaufman via Avodah wrote:
>> But to my surprise, even in the context of those pesukim, the Rambam in
>> the third perek of Hilchos Teshuva, second halacha...
>>  He writes that when one's sins (in the sense of their seriousness)
>> attain the majority over one's virtues, one thereby is judged a rasha.

> However, the Rambam goes on to say shortly afterwards (in the same halacha)
> that "majority" isn't considered by quantity but rather quality...

I would read the Rambam as measuring sins rather than counting them. Like
grapes being sold by weight. It's still quantitative, just not in the
same way as buying apples by the apple.

This kind of read is compelled by the previous halakhah (3:1):
    Every human being has zekhuyos and avanos. Someone whose zekhuyos
    are yeseiros (greater) than his avonos is a tzadiq. And someone
    whose avonos are yeseiros than his zekhuyos is a rasha. Half-and-half
    is a beinoni.

I translated "yeseiros al" as greater than rather than outnumber because
of the point you raised. The total pile of As is bigger than the B pile
(or weighs more, if you prefer that mashal), even if there are more Bs.

So it would seem that yeseiros and merubin have similar meanings.

I also assumed mechtza al mechtza means *roughly* half-and-half, since I
cannot picture there are any people who are precisely in balance.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 What we do for ourselves dies with us.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   What we do for others and the world,
Author: Widen Your Tent      remains and is immortal.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Albert Pine