Netanel Javasky is working on a project to identify and analyze halachic
concepts which relate to human behavior, and to discuss how those
concepts are applied in changing times. (examples to be included soon)
Thank you for your shiur today.
It seemed to me that you avoided the question. To me, the question is, why assume a binary nature of mitzvot (yotze / not yotze). Surely there could be a spectrum - better and worse ways to perform a mitzva. It should be better to eat a full kezayit of matza, but is there not still value in half a kezayit? Does one not thus recall yetziat mitzrayim, and accomplish some of whatever the purpose of the mitzva may be? I don't think your approaches addressed this.
Also permit me to comment on the stained shirt metaphor - a shirt with a stain is still a shirt, still covers the body and keeps one warm. It may be worth $10 at Goodwill rather than $60 from your sister, but it is still a shirt! So I would expect with mitzvot.
Thank you for your comments.
Although the term “details of Halacha” is a vague term which can be referring to many different things, we do find that there is an emphasis placed on matters which we may deem trivial. This emphasis is so strong that at times, these “details” do create the Mitzvah, and yes, the binary nature of them. I think that the first approach, the recognition that the Torah is one unit, a complete holistic system, does address your question. Although we can imagine a spectrum system of Mitzvos, and for many Mitzvos there are “better”, more complete ways of performing the Mitzvah, nonetheless, there remain specific details, technicalities to the Mitzvos which are indispensable. I think the third approach also explains why the Torah places so much emphasis on the details, as the defining factors that create the binary structure of the Mitzvos. Since the details, as elaborated upon in the Shiur, define our relationship with Hashem and make it meaningful and special, it is understandable that they would contribute to the definition of the Mitzvah. While it is true that we could imagine a world in which the Mitzvos were just a wide spectrum, the fact is that for most Mitzvos there seems to be, at least to some degree, this binary nature that you speak about and I attempted to present in the Shiur a number of possibilities as to why this should be. I hope that clarifies the issue.
Netanel
I think we are approaching the question from 2 different perspectives.
You seem to assume that Chazal have defined many mitzvot in a binary way, and seek to justify why that might be.
I, on the other hand, am wondering if perhaps the definition of shiurim was never meant to invalidate less than a shiur. The same way as chatzi shiur may be assur min hatorah, perhaps chatzi shiur can indeed be a mitzva.
Thoughts?
Thank you for clarifying. I apologize if I misunderstood you. It is true that I am assuming that for many Mitzvos the details are definitive of the greater Mitzvah and would thereby invalidate the Mitzvah. For many Mitzvos this appears to be true. For example, the Breishit Rabbah (44:1) asks why should G-d care if you sacrifice the animal from the front of the neck or the back (where the Shechitah would be invalid). Regarding the specific example of Shiurim, Rav Ovadyah Yosef has a 70 page chapter on the question of eating less than a Kizayit of Matzah and if there is any significance to this. You can access the Chazon Ovadyah (Cheilek 1:Vol. 2:Siman 28)@ www.hebrewbooks.org/907.
Rav Moshe Feinstein (Orach Chaim 2:93) discusses this possibility within the opinion of Rav Shimon who considers any amount as an Achila, in other contexts. For Mitzvos, Rav Moshe concludes that everyone would agree that you need the full Shiur.
Regards,
Netanel
I think we are approaching the question from 2 different perspectives.
You seem to assume that Chazal have defined many mitzvot in a binary way, and seek to justify why that might be.
I, on the other hand, am wondering if perhaps the definition of shiurim by Chazal was never meant to completely invalidate less than a shiur. The same way as chatzi shiur may be assur min hatorah, perhaps chatzi shiur can indeed be a mitzva.
Thoughts?
