Q&A: Regulations (fences?) for rabbinic commandments
Regulations (fences?) for rabbinic commandments
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In one of your lectures you said—and please correct me if I’m not being precise—that if a rabbi is about to violate a rabbinic commandment, we let him go ahead and only afterward ask him about it (as opposed to a Torah-level commandment).
If so, why are there rabbinic enactments whose whole purpose is to create protection for other rabbinic commandments? (For example, lighting Hanukkah candles only until midnight lest there not be publicizing of the miracle [after the fact one can of course light until dawn, but only after the fact, as mentioned].)
And is the status of enactments made to protect rabbinic commandments equivalent to rabbinic commandments themselves? I mean in terms of their severity.
Thank you
Answer
There is no connection between the two. There is an obligation to observe rabbinic commandments, but if it is being done unintentionally, there is no obligation to prevent it. That does not mean we do not make fences to ensure their observance. Beyond that, one should distinguish between rabbinic commandments that have substantive content (there is intrinsic value in fulfilling them), such as publicizing the miracle, and decrees and fences. Regarding decrees, we do not say “a decree upon a decree,” and perhaps that is precisely because of this.