Rischa D'Araisa Season 2 Episode 26:
Gerei Toshav Among Us?
Does Israel have a Halachic imperative to supply the Vaccine to the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza?
A correspondent shared a teshuvah from Rabbi Nachum E. Rabinowitz zt"l on the topic. The teshuvah is at:
Dear Rabbi Bechhofer, shlit”a,
ReplyDeleteI just listened to the podcast from last night.
I was shocked to hear the other rabbi question the authenticity of Meiri’s views about non-Jews. He cites Jacob Katz in this regard. This is complete nonsense since Katz is adamant that Meiri’s views are not apologetic but his sincere view of Halacha. All subsequent academics have been in agreement with Katz on this. I have no idea what the rabbi was talking about in citing Katz.
The Seridei Eish, in one of his private letters published by Shapiro, expresses anguish that in some yeshivas they whisper that the Meiri only said this because of the censor. The SE maintains that that view is a total distortion and he feels that we should be teaching Meiri’s view as the normative Halacha. He expresses the same view in his published Sefer Lifrakim. Many other Acharonim endorsed the view of Meiri.
I saw a recent tribute to the late Rav Kelemer written by a talmid of sorts who quoted RK as having ruled like the Meiri in terms of the status of non-Jews. RK, zt”l, was not a naïve person. If he paskened like Meiri, it’s because he felt Meiri was halachically correct.
I can send a list of Acharonim who said the same.
I agree with your reaction too: if the Meiri “didn’t really mean it,” then maybe Rishonim who said harsher things about goyim “didn’t really mean it.” It’s strange that no one is choshesh for the Maharshal when they make the “he said it to be politically correct” type of argument. Terrible!
Thank you for standing firm in defense of Meiri’s position.
See also http://rationalistmedicalhalacha.blogspot.com/2015/11/jews-and-gentiles-on-shabbat.html
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