Timeline for Did people ever place actual physical stumbling blocks before the blind?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Aug 15, 2012 at 18:45 | comment | added | Daniel | @DoubleAA You're right. It is certainly possible (I'd say likely) that everything is all about mesora. Our mesora is that the mitzvah applies in a general way, and not in a specific way; however, it doesn't really say anything about whether people were literally doing that AFAIK. I'm just trying to use some logic based on how the mitzvah is applied to come up with a reasonable answer because otherwise, this question kind of seems unanswerable. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 17:54 | comment | added | Double AA♦ | Maybe we just don't interpret murder that way because those two things have different levels of bad-ness. Or perhaps it's based on context in the psukim. Or perhaps it's all about a mesora. And anyway I have to imagine that more people were tripping blind people for fun than sleeping with their mothers; should we interpret that metaphorically as well? | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 17:38 | comment | added | Daniel | @DoubleAA, using the example that I gave before. Because murder is something that, unfortunately, happens, we interpret that mitzvah to literally mean "Do not murder," rather than, for example, "Do not insult someone because insulting someone is like murder." | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 17:33 | comment | added | Daniel | @DoubleAA If people actually did put stumbling blocks before the blind, and the mitzvah doesn't prohibit that, then why would it use those words? Anyway, my point isn't whether the mitzvah does or doesn't prohibit doing so. My point is that if people actually did that, then logically the mitzvah would not prohibit other things that we generally consider it to prohibit. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 17:17 | comment | added | Double AA♦ | How would 'Do not murder' be interpreted non-literaly? And also not everyone agrees that physically putting a stumbling block in front of a blind person is forbidden because of this lav. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 17:00 | comment | added | Daniel | @DoubleAA In other words, I am arguing that if people did trip blind people, then this commandment WOULD NOT be prohibiting parallel things. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 16:56 | comment | added | Daniel | @DoubleAA Of course, not tripping blind people is included in our non-literal interpretation of the mitzvah. But if this were something that was common, the mitzvah would be interpreted literally like "Do not murder" is interpreted literally. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 16:52 | comment | added | Double AA♦ | Perhaps tripping blind people was common, and the Torah is telling you not to do that AND not to do parallel things such as misinforming people. This seems like a false dichotomy. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 16:46 | history | answered | Daniel | CC BY-SA 3.0 |