העורך Editor

Mishlei 14:34:

צדקה תרומם גוי וחסד לאמים חטאת.

“Giving charity elevates the nation; the kindness of the nations is a sin.”

Rashi explains:

צדקה תרומם גוי, ישראל. וחסד לאומים חטאת, שהיו נוטלים מזה ונותנים לזה.

“Giving charity elevates the nation” – This refers to the Jews.

“The kindness of the nations is a sin” – who take from this one and give to that one (I assume the past-tense word “היו” is only due to the censor).

In short, Tzedakah is specific.

Here is Shut (responsa) “Binyan Tzion” at the end of siman 23 defending Metzitza by focusing on the empirical nature of medicine:

Download (PDF, 51KB)

Statistical analysis is never perfect, and doctors know little of inexorable cause and effect, if anything, for certain. The same approach to this question was taken by the Chasam Sofer and Maharam Shick.

Economics, however, is logical. We know what laws will do before they do them. Nor can one say “Nishtanu Hateva’im”. Of course, while some may be of the opinion Chazal were not aware of every empirical fact, I don’t know of anyone who would (or has) dared claim Chazal misunderstood pure, unchanging logic.

And if the Torah itself mandates a socialistic mitzvah or a centralized Temple or Ribbis, this is because maximum profits are not the goal, anyway.

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הרב גריינמן כתב ראשי פרקים על דף אחד, ומסר אותו לאחד מאנשיו שטרח והרחיב את הדברים. כך שמעתי מעד נאמן, ובזה מובן תאריך ההוצאה.

(דף השער משוחזר מהמקור אות באות.)

A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: “I, the state, am the people.”

It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life. Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.

Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs.

Friedrich Nietzsche

ספר קצור שו”ע סימן ע”ב י”ב:

מצוה על כל אדם לרחץ בכל ערב שבת פניו ידיו ורגליו בחמין. ואם אפשר ירחץ כל גופו בחמין, ויטבל את עצמו במקוה [והגאון מהריעב”ץ (מורנו הרב ר’ יעקב בן צבי) כתב שלא ירחץ כל גופו משום דקשה לתשמיש באותו יום].

לא ראיתי בפנים.