[Avodah] mutav sheyihyu shogegim

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 05:30:44PM +1100, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
>>
>> Chazal explain, the repetitive terminology indicates 'even one
>> thousand times' Why is this necessary? If one checks numerous
>> Esrogim or blows countless Tekios, and all are Passul, might one
>> think that the duty no longer exists?
>>
> 
> Maybe because mutav sheyihyu shogegim would lead me to conclude that
> if they aren't accepting my tokhachah, I should give up rather than
> make future chataim worse by adding to their bemeizid-ness.
> 

For the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with the term, "mutav
sheyihyu shogegim" -- which is Hebrew for "better that they be
negligent" -- denotes the notion that it is better for people to
disobey a law due to negligence, than for them to be fully aware of
the law and disobey it intentionally.

You are correct that "mutav sheyihyu shogegim" never exempts us from
our obligation to obey Leviticus 19:17; it only exempts us from our
obligation to obey the Rabbinic extensions to Leviticus 19:17.  You
speculate, perhaps correctly, that our Sages were concerned that we
might misunderstand that distinction, so there were occasions when
they made a point to emphasize it.

The following is paraphrased from an article that was posted six
months ago in the mail-jewish mailing list.  I shall now post a
paraphrase here.  It is a paraphrase, specifically rewritten, in
parts, for the present discussion, and therefore it does not rise to
the level of "cross-posting", a practice which violates the rules of
the Avodah mailing list (I feel obliged to point this out, because
there is a regular contributor to the Avodah mailing list who
routinely cross-posts his articles to mail-jewish, in violation of the
rules of the Avodah mailing list).

Leviticus 19:17 requires us (among other things) to admonish our
fellow Jew, when he or she is transgressing.  This is on everyone's
list of the 613 Scriptural commandments, and according to everyone's
list of the 613 Scriptural commandments, it does not matter whether
anyone asked you, or whether your adminishment will be effective in
changing anyone's behavior.  However, a misunderstanding of the nature
of this obligation may lead to confusion, and it may lead to the
incorrect belief that it is regulated by "mutav sheyihyu shogegim",
which it is not.

The Torah does not require you to try to do impossible things.  Thus,
if you become aware that Scarlett Johansson, or the late Madeleine
Allbright, is wearing sha`atnez underwear, then you must tell her to
remove her underwear, and if she does not, then you must remove it
yourself, forcibly.

(I swear I am not making this up.  This is true, according to Rambam,
who, in Hilkhoth Kil'ayyim 10:29 -- you can look it up -- changes the
example of the Talmud, which spoke only of removing your own clothes.
I love this stuff.)

However, if you are certain that you will be prevented from forcibly
removing her underwear, then you are not obliged to leap on her and
try, because the Torah commands us to do things, but does not command
us to try to do impossible things.

The commandment to admonish your fellow Jew, though, is not a
commandment to get your fellow Jew to stop transgressing.  It is a
commandment to admonish your fellow Jew.  That is how it is expressed,
and that is how it is understood.  It makes no mention of whether you
will succeed in getting your fellow Jew to change his or her behavior.
That's not part of the mitzvah.  The mitzvah is that when your fellow
Jew transgresses, you must admonish him or her (unless, of course,
your doing so would violate some other positive Torah commandment,
although not if it would violate a negative Torah commandment, since a
positive commandment overrides a negative one).

Of course, the Scriptural obligation to admonish your fellow Jew when
he or she is transgressing, only applies when your fellow Jew is
violating a Scriptural commandment; if your fellow Jew is violating a
Rabbinic obligation, but not a Scriptural one, then there is no
Scriptural obligation to admonish.  There is a Rabbinic obligation to
admonish, but this Rabbinic obligation has many qualifications that
the Scriptural obligation has not (such as, it is better that they
transgress unknowingly, than that they transgress knowingly).

When the Sages extend a Scriptural commandment, they are free to limit
and to qualify the extension any way they like.  Thus, there is no
Scriptural prohibition to cook on Yom Tov in preparation for Shabbath
(although no one knows why there is not, see Psaxim 46b); the
prohibition is only Rabbinic, as is the prohibition to light a fire on
Yom Tov, from an existing fire, in preparation for Shabbath, only
Rabbinic.  When the Sages enacted those prohibitions, they excluded
the lighting of Ner Shabbath from their scope.  Thus, even if you have
intentionally not made an `Eruv Tavshilin, you are still permitted,
and required, to light a Shabbath candle (but only one, because that
was all that the Sages required of us, the lighting of two candles was
a frumkeit inflicted on us by the Xasidei Ashkenaz) on the late
afternoon of a Friday Yom Tov, by taking an existing fire, and using
it to light the Ner Shabbath.

On the other hand, the prohibition to create a fire on Shabbath is
also Scriptural, whereas the prohibition to create a fire on Yom Tov
is only Rabbinic (Mishnah Beitzah 4:7); so, just as the Sages
permitted us to light a Shabbath candle on Yom Tov, from an existing
fire, the Sages could also have permitted us to light a Shabbath
candle on Yom Tov, by striking a match.  In that case, they chose not
to permit it, they chose not to limit the Rabbinic prohibition of
creating a fire on Yom Tov, but they could have.

Getting back to the original topic: When our Sages enact a Rabbinic
prohibition, one hopes that they would do so in a way that reduces,
and does not increase, disobedience to the law.  Our Sages did not
live in a bubble, and they did not, God forbid, live in a kollel, they
lived in the real world, and they understood that some people who
violate laws of which they are not aware, will continue to violate
those laws when those laws are made known to them, and that is much
worse than violating laws of which they are ignorant.  With respect to
Scriptural laws, there's nothing we can do about that, because we have
to obey Leviticus 19:17.  With respect to Rabbinic laws, there is
something that we can do about it, we can refrain from telling our
fellow Jews that they are violating the law, if we think that telling
them will not change their behavior.

               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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               When Martin Buber was a schoolboy, it must have been
               no fun at all playing tag with him during recess.