Subj : Re: Extent of the Torah
To   : Frank Masingill
From : Joshua Lee
Date : Thu Oct 26 2000 10:41 pm

-=> Frank Masingill wrote to Joshua Lee <=-

 FM> I got stuck on the idenity of the "for 'all men.' "  Refresh
 FM> my memory. What IS it that is banned for "all men."  If you

 JL> It is seriously not for all people. In fact, there's even a
 JL> statement in the Talmud that a non-Jew who observes the
 JL> Sabbath in full is chayiv misa. (*Liable* for the death
 JL> penalty; keeping in mind of course, that Jewish courts have
 JL> such strict rules for the death penalties that it is
 JL> effectively impossible to carry out according to the laws

 FM>         Well, Joshua, keep the guillotine or the hangman's noose
 FM> stored as far as I'm concerned.  I doubt seriously that I've EVER
 FM> committed your chayiv misa.

I agree; and if you did you wouldn't have to worry. The death penalty
in Jewish law is effectively a dead letter, so to speak. It's been
that way for thousands of years. (Which is why the story of the Sanhedrin's
secret execution of god in the NT rubs us the wrong way; it, like much of
the stories of Pharasees there, is completely the opposite of how
we understand them to have been.)

 FM> I know I told you a long time ago that I had Seventh Day Adventist
 FM> cousins and "observing the Sabbath" was not something I considered

I respect Seventh Day Adventists, I have a friend who's one. Of African
descent from Grenada (in the Carribian) of all places.

 FM> to be a "fun" day for kids.  I did LOVE, though, all of the baking
 FM> of great breads before sundown on Friday in preparation for the week
 FM> ahead.  I don't imagine they "do it like you do."

Actually, we eat special bread on the Sabbath too! They indeed don't
do it like us though. Once, walking to shul in Virginia, a SDA tourist,
seeing someone dressed in a suit walking on the sidewalk and thinking
by chance I might be one of them, stopped their van to ask where the
nearest SDA church was! Of course, an Orthodox Jew would not drive on
the Sabbath...

 FM>         If I should ever violate your law by committing the chayiv
 FM> misa and somebody who knows that lingua franca apprises me of it

Oddly, part of Jewish law requires "watch and warn", among other
things, for someone to be punishable by the death penalty. I wouldn't
be concerned if I were you.

 FM> I'll be sure to turn myself in for trial!!!  Better watch some of
 FM> the other guys on this echo though.  They might be tring to do it
 FM> behind your back!!

As my history professor said, "The People? 'The People' are rude, crude,
lewd, and given half a chance, they would kill you, and shoot themselves
in the foot!"

                       JBL

.... What is mind? No matter! What is matter? Never mind! - Homer S.
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