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Property – a metaphysical interest or a social convention?

שו”תCategory: HalachaProperty – a metaphysical interest or a social convention?
asked 2 years ago

Hello, Your Honor,

I was confused by the lessons on Platonism and jurisprudence:
According to Rabbi Gibraltar, there was no system of laws in the ghetto, and therefore there is no social consensus regarding property. This concept has essentially been abolished, and therefore there is no theft.

On the other hand, ownership is a seemingly metaphysical matter, which connects the owner of the thing to the thing.

I thought maybe I could solve the problem by having theft that is legally prohibited and theft that is Torahically prohibited.
Perhaps in a situation like the ghetto, the legal prohibition of theft has of course been dropped because there is no enforcement system and therefore no concept of ownership of a social convention, but there is certainly the metaphysical concept, and the name of Torah theft added by the Torah has not been abolished?

Maybe you answered this and I missed it?


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago
I answered at length in the lesson itself. There were arguments about that. I said that even if metaphysically there are concepts of ownership, once they are not practiced in practice they have no realization and remain in the world of ideas. Just as if a judge were to abandon someone’s money, then the money would not be his, even though halakhically it is his. According to the Rabbis, the law applies to the doctrine of jurisprudence, and therefore there is no situation in which there is no legal ownership but there is halachic ownership.

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מוישה אופניק replied 2 years ago

Okay, I missed the part about R”S.

Thanks.

So if in an imaginary situation, I have a bull in the ghetto, and the bull goes after and kills.
Whether it kills a person or a cow doesn't matter, because it's not mine at all?

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

right

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