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Friday, February 8, 2013

Insight 5773-21: The Significance of Civil Law

For Mishpatim
Not yet available on the Nishma website.

Study Question

1) There was a technical question regarding one of the ideas presented in the Insight which I wanted to include in a footnote but did not have the space. The Rav speaks of the intellectual strength of Nezikin to which he brings a proof text from the gemara in Baba Batra. I further built upon this idea with the statement of the Torah Temima. In fact, the Torah Temima uses the word da'at, somewhat applying it to our issue, but I put his words together with the words of the Rav to further substantiate the intellectual value of Nezikin. The problem is that T.B.  Shabbat 31a states that if one wants to develop da'at, one should learn Taharot. According to the gemara, the motivation for studying Nezikin is yeshu'ot which literally means salvation which Rashi understands to mean in this case pragmatically how one can stay away from paying for damages, etc. I do not believe this completely challenges the idea of the elite Torah intellectual nature of Nezikin but it is something to ponder in regard to this question.

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