From: chr04ha@vmsa.technion.ac.il (Amitai Halevi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Killing Lice on Shabbat (was Re: Kosher Honey - Still no answer)
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:55:04 GMT
Organization: Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

In article <9211160043.AA26861@host0.COLBY.EDU>, jjsulliv@COLBY.EDU 
(Nice Young Lady(tm)) writes:

> In article <2806@israel.nysernet.org>, warren@nysernet (Warren Burstein) 
writes:
>>Another question is, as I remember it (if anyone thinks I have
>>remembered it wrong, please go home and look it up before you tell me
>>that I am wrong), one is allowed to kill lice on Shabbat because they
>>are spontaneously generated.  [...]

> 
> Is this directly from the Torah or from some other writings?  I am curious.
> 
> JJ
-- 

It is refreshing to find a reader of SCJ who is not satisfied by finding
out what the Halachic rule is is a particular case, but also evinces an 
interest in its origin. Previous posts in which I have tried to trace 
other Halachot to their sources have not elicited any response.  
Let me try my hand at it once more, in answer to the "nice young lady". 
If it then turns out that there is no interest in this sort of analysis, 
I will desist and deregister from SCJ.

The most sweeping prohibition against killing any creature on
Shabbat is that of Rabbi Eliezer (Shabbat 12a and 107b):
"Killing a louse is equivalent to killing a camel".  The Talmud
(Shabbat 107b) then exempts lice from this prohibition on grounds 
that it does not procreate (i.e. is spontaneously generated from 
perspiration). This explanation was accepted as Halacha by Rashi 
and other Poskim, surprisingly including Rambam.

The majority view is challenged by Abbayei on the basis of the 
dictum (Av. Zarah 3b): "The Rabbi [R. Yehudah citing Rav] has said:...
G-d provides for [all] from the horns of the wild ox to the eggs of   
lice". The majority view's way out of this dilemma was to redefine 
"eggs of lice" as a louse-like creature - no doubt also spontaneously 
generated - that Rashi translates to aramaic as "inba", which Jastrow 
identifies to be a nit.
[If any reader wants to characterize this rationalization as 
"nit-picking", he or she has my permission. :-)]

The exemption of lice from the rule against killing on Shabbat was 
not recognized by earlier generations of Amoraim. The Yerushalmi 
(Shabbat 1,3) accepts Rabbi Eliezer's ruling (ascribed there to 
Hezekiah, who lived much later than R. Eliezer) as binding, and 
suggests other ways of dealing with lice on Shabbat: Jose ben Bon 
(ben Avin) puts them in a bottle. Mar Shmuuel, who - being no mean
biologist -  probably would not have accepted the argument based on 
spontaneous  generation, pulled off their legs and put them before 
his young son.  One can only surmise that the latter, being underage, 
was not  obligated to let them live on. 
Incidentally, there is no rule against maiming insects on Shabbat; 
the prohibition  against injuring "vermin" is limited to the eight 
species listed in Leviticus 11,29, and by inference perhaps to other 
vertebrates.

There are thus ample grounds for Conservative or Reform "Poskim" to
revise the Halacha on the basis of minority Talmudic opinion, and 
thus avoid the embarrassment of its being based on the presumption 
of a scientifically unsound proposition. I have no advice for the 
Orthodox on this point; if everything in the Shulhan Aruch is presumed 
to be "Halacha le'Moshe  mi'sinai", its history is  irrelevant :-).
	[The smiley applies to the entire last paragraph.]

Amitai
 *---------------------------------------------------------------*
 | E.A. Halevi, Department of Chemistry, Technion - I.I.T.       |     
 | "Mipnei seiva takum, vehadarta pnei zaken" - Leviticus 19, 32 |
 *---------------------------------------------------------------*
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish