Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s ONLINE ‘Living Torah’ Translation Is GONE!
One of our most popular articles was the one pointing to this beautiful resource, not seen via Google.
Apparently, one of the copyright holders decided to fix matters. That is his right, but there is hardly anything to see anymore.
Well, it was nice while it lasted!
R’ Akiva Eiger: The Capitalist Solution to Universal Peace and Fellow-Feeling
Shulchan Aruch C. M. 7:7:
אסור לאדם לדון למי שהוא אוהבו אע”פ שאינו שושבינו ולא ריעו אשר כנפשו ולא למי ששונאו אע”פ שאינו אויב לו ולא מבקש רעתו אלא צריך שיהיו השני בעלי הדינים שוים בעיני הדיינים ובלבם ואם לא היה מכיר את שום אחד מהם ולא את מעשיו אין לך דיין צדיק כמוהו…
Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s glosses:
שהוא אוהבו. נ”ב ע’ ת’ עבה”ג סי’ ל”ג דשותפו במו”מ מקרי אוהבו.
Two Comments on So-Called ‘Mercy’ Abortion
- When speaking of circumstances possibly permitting abortion, such as the mental health of the mother, I don’t think the experience of charitable organizations such as the famed Efrat (which helps guide and assist mothers-to-be in distress) should be dismissed in favor of the pro-abortion establishment. These people have a very different estimate of the number of happy abortions. Indeed, they appear to argue the long-term anguish after committing an abortion may be worse.
- A Jewish solution to abortion grief for an unjustified abortion is to do Teshuva and the Tikkun on p. 78 here.
Why Do Rabbis Mix Into Politics?!
Rabbi Uri Sherki (the name is French, so excuse my spelling) often remarks that he is asked why rabbis comment on politics, and he answers, “What, then, should rabbis deal with?”
Of course, the questioners are here being polite. Instead of using the term “מתעסקים”, they might use the ruder “מתערבים”, since it’s more of an accusation than a display of respectful curiosity.
In explanation, Rabbi Sherki notes that any system that has laws for polities must have a political program. And Judaism has laws for the whole polity. In other words, the laws are aiming at some new order, in the instrumental sense.
(I don’t care to credit the accursed source the rabbi brings for this insight.)
This is all very important and correct.
(“Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law” by Brian Z. Tamanaha may be worth a look.)
Yet I think the question cannot be dismissed, either. The “question” is based on the sobering realization the political field itself is impossible to navigate with justice.
Here the layman’s intuition is correct (although he may feel that what is forbidden to the rabbis is permissible to himself).