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<font size="-1"><font face="Arial">(resending)<br>
Back in biblical times, bamot were
the classic example of the kind of dead letter halakhot you're talking
about. This is hardly a new problem. I think the issue comes up
primarily when people are being told not to do something that would
otherwise be a religious obligation, but in the case of examples like
Skokie, I think it was an issue of assimilation, on some scale or other.<br>
<br>
Lisa</font></font><br>
<br>
On 3/9/2012 1:15 AM, Jay F Shachter wrote:
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A thoughtful taxonomy of these dead-letter halakhoth would be welcome,
as would be an elucidation of their distinguishing characteristic. My
first impulse was to assert that Jews just don't observe halakhoth
that are difficult (fasting on Yom Kippur is easy; desisting from
thirty-nine categories of labor on Shabbath is easy; not mourning for
your son is hard). But that is a facile conclusion that does not fit
the facts. There is nothing more difficult than the laws of nidda;
and yet, a woman tells her husband that she has seen something that
resembles a red rose, and he separates from her, which is a marvel,
more marvelous than the way of a vulture in the heavens, or a serpent
over a rock, or a ship on the high sea. It is a marvel that it
happens even once, and yet it has happened millions of times.
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<blockquote cite="mid:4f59ae09.Rwx+nQpCdnUqoSFq%25jay@m5.chicago.il.us"
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