[Avodah] Chok

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jul 21, 2024 at 11:43:03AM -0400, Michael Poppers via Avodah wrote:
> In Avodah V42n49, R'Micha posts:
> > I was taken by R J Sacks zt"l's idea for what a choq is...
>> And since their role is to ingrain habit and instinct, the word "choq"
>> fits the /ch-q-q/ etymology.
> 
> However, as RMFirst (bcc:ed) notes (URL:
> https://jewishlink.news/what-is-the-meaning-of-chok-2/) re other
> interpretations, this "create instinctive patterns of behavior" suggestion
> does not fit all the uses of "choq" in TaNaCH -- you can see all those
> examples in his article after he quotes RML:

My post was actually sparked by that article. RMF is a friend of our
former regular, RRW, and he had e-introduced us. So I was able to discuss
it with him by messenger. RMF hadn't seen RLJ Sacks' taken until then.

>> Fortunately, Rabbi Menachem Leibtag has discussed the meaning of חק in an
>> article available online on the Orthodox Union website ("Chukat: Parah
>> Adumah: What's a Chok?"). He concludes that a [choq] is a law that is fixed and
>> unchanging...

Except that it wouldn't explain the numer of non-chuqim. When most of
the laws are equally fixed, why would some be named by their fixed nature?
Lo sirtzah is more malleable than shaatnez?

For that matter, there is a different idiom for laws that are more fixed,
"halakhah leMoshe miSinai". Because anything else could have elements
open to rabbinic interpretation and pesaq.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   exactly the right measure of himself,  and
Author: Widen Your Tent      holds a just balance between what he can
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    acquire and what he can use." - Peter Latham