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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Elliott Shevin <A
href="mailto:eshevin@hotmail.com">eshevin@hotmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Rn. Toby Katz writes: > Of course tevillah is a mitzva in the sense
that once you became nidah, if > you are a married woman and if you want to
be with your husband, you have to > go to the mikva. But you had no chiyuv to
become nidah or to be married....> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>RES: >>And sukkah is a mitvah if you're not too infirm to perform
it--but you didn't have a chiyv to be healthy (only to *strive* to be healthy).
Providing a get is a mitzvah--but you didn't have a chiyuv to get into an
unhappy marriage.><</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>TK: Whoever first said, "There are two mitzvos that are performed
with the > entire body" had in mind this definition of mitzva: an obligation
incumbent upon > everyone. (Or, incumbent upon every Jewish man, to be more
precise.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>RES: >>It doesn't make sense to me to rule out any mitzvah simply
because it's situational; an awful lot of them are. Is there a source for your
assertion? <<</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>To me the difference is so intuitively obvious that I am having trouble
even putting it into words. There is one kind of mitzva that you are
lechatchila obligated to do -- like sukka, matza, shofar and a whole bunch
more -- but if something goes wrong, then you are patur (if you get sick, for
example). Then there is a whole nother kind of mitzva that only kicks in
in the first place if something goes wrong, if something needs to be
corrected -- e.g., going to the mikva if you became nidah (which status -- nidus
-- would not even exist but for Chava's sin). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the first set of mitzvos, you seem to be saying something like, "There
is no chiyuv to make sure you are not exempt from these mitzvos." But
actually, there /is/ such a chiyuv. That is, you are not allowed to do
something deliberately that will cause you to be exempt from these
mitzvos. Like, you can't make yourself sick on purpose so that you won't
have to eat in the sukka.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"If you become nidah you have to go to the mikva."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"If you are healthy you have to eat in the sukka."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As I said, it seems to me intuitively obvious that these are two entirely
different categories, but I need somebody with a sharper mind than mine to spell
out the difference.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You can't seriously be claiming that being in good
health is just a "situational" grounds for keeping the mitzva of
Sukkos the way "getting divorced" is a situational grounds for giving a get or
becoming nidah is a situational grounds for going to the mikva.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>