3 ms·
Interpretation of a law can be very subtle without being merely a ruse to "find loopholes". The development of the religious law around eruvim strikes me as a
by bwestergard 1y ago
Interpretation of a law can be very subtle without being merely a ruse to "find loopholes".
The development of the religious law around eruvim strikes me as a series of common sense adaptations that took place to preserve an ideal in the face of changing historical circumstances.
- UltraSane 1y agoGoing from a solid wall providing actual privacy and access control to a completely pointless wire is NOT "common sense adaptation". It is negating the law while pretending you are still adhering to it.
- bwestergard 1y agoCan you site any rabbinical responsa for the assertion that "privacy and access control" are relevant factors?
- UltraSane 1y agoEruv originally meant wall and those are the main functions of a wall. It is reasonable to assume that that is why the law used a wall as a condition for exceptions on Sabbath restrictions. They sure as hell didn't originally use a freaking WIRE. It seems similar to Islam allowing women to wear completely sheer niqab.
- xg15 1y agoAgreed. I think in situations of religious laws, where the text really can never be changed because it is literally holy, it's at least understandable and mostly harmless. But in general I find the practice of reinterpreting law texts to the point of absurdity really problematic. It undermines faith in the legal system, because suddenly law texts become "legalese" that cannot be interpreted by laymen. In the worst case, you get "creative reinterpretation" of legal terms like the Trump admin is doing it currently. I remember reading about an US state where the governor was allowed to unilaterally modify state laws before they came into effect, by removing parts of it. The constitution didn't specify what was meant by "parts", so some governors took it as the right to delete individual words and letters from the text and thereby completely change the meaning of the laws...
- xg15 1y agoNon-jew here, but what would be the rationale for the shabbat exceptions otherwise? I assume they didn't just make up random rules for fun.