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<DIV>In Avodah Digest, Vol 26, Issue 171 dated 8/19/2009 R' <FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Eli Turkel
<eliturkel@gmail.com><BR>asked: </FONT></DIV>
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face=Arial></FONT> </DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
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<DIV><BR>>> Since it is brought I have asked people for years for any
rules when<BR>lo plog applies.<BR><BR>....More generally in some cases we say X
is different than Y and so the<BR>prohibition of Y does not apply and in other
cases we say lo plog <<<BR><BR>>>>>><BR>I am behind in my
Avodah reading so others may have responded to this before, but my impression is
that it is not possible to give a general rule about when "lo plug"
applies. Not even theoretically possible.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In general, when X and Y are similar cases we try to be consistent and keep
the same rules for both, and therefore say "lo plug." When X and Y are
sufficiently dissimilar, we say that the two cases are so different from each
other that "lo plug" clearly does not apply, these are two entirely different
cases. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>However, there are not just two possibilities, yes/no or on/off for "X
is almost exactly the same as Y" and "X is entirely different from Y."
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Rather, there is a smeared, fuzzy continuum of possibilities all the way
from "X is 99% the same as Y" to "X is only one percent the same as Y." At
the extremes all poskim will agree that X and Y are so similar that Lo Plug (or
all will agree that X and Y are so different that Lo Plug does not apply).
In between, along the smeared continuum of possibilities, reasonable people will
reasonably differ as to precisely where the preponderance changes from "Lo Plug"
to "Lo Plug is not applicable." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Therefore there cannot be a simple rule, an on/off or yes/no rule, for when
Lo Plug does or does not apply, no simple algorithm that could be
applied to every single X and Y. This is why you need a posek and
not a computer to answer halachic questions.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</B></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="9602ca2eb539aef52810760d48bcd19b"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>