<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/15/07, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:T613K@aol.com" target="_blank">T613K@aol.com</a></b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:T613K@aol.com" target="_blank">
T613K@aol.com</a>> wrote:</span></div>
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<div>To me the difference is so intuitively obvious that I am having trouble even putting it into words. </div></div></font></div></blockquote>
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<div>I've told many English teachers this line before, but they've never accepted it as an excuse for a late essay. This is my first time I got to see an English teacher say this!</div>
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<div>a whole nother kind of mitzva </div></div></font></div></blockquote>
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<div>Did you really say that?</div>
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<div>Now to our regularly scheduled Avodah topic:</div>
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<div>RnTK wrote originally:</div>
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<div>Of course tevillah is a mitzva in the sense that once you became nidah, if you are a married woman and if you want <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> <span class="" id="st" name="st">be</span> with your husband, you have
<span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> go <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> the mikva. But you had no chiyuv <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> become nidah or <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span>
<span class="" id="st" name="st">be</span> married. Or if you're a <span class="" id="st" name="st">man</span> living at the time of the Bais Hamikdash, it would <span class="" id="st" name="st">be</span> a mitzva <span class="" id="st" name="st">
to</span> go the mikva /if/ you had become tamei. But you had no chiyuv <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> become tamei! So there is no "mitzva" <span class="" id="st" name="st">to</span> go the mikva in the sense of "universal obligation."
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<p>RnTK wrote now: </p>
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<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.
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<div>"If you become nidah you have to go to the mikva."</div>
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<div>"If you are healthy you have to eat in the sukka."</div>
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<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>
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<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.
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<div>I agree with your distinction between mitzvos for which the chiyuv is only generated by the circumstances (like tevillas nidah) and mitzvos where the chiyuv exists l'chatchila, even if the circumstances sometimes create a p'tur. However, I don't know to what extent that is relevant. Birchas hamazon is a mitzvah that is only generated by the circumstances, but it is certainly a full mitzvah, and is counted in the various minyanei hamitzvos.
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<div>KT,</div>
<div>Michael</div>