Q&A: Rabbi Shimon Shkop’s Monetary Law
Rabbi Shimon Shkop’s Monetary Law
Question
A. Who are those who disagree with Rabbi Shimon Shkop regarding monetary law that preceded the laws of the Torah (and if possible, please provide references to where they say so)?
B. Does the Rabbi have an article on this matter?
C. Are Rabbi Shimon Shkop’s monetary laws meta-halakhah?
D. Rabbi Shimon Shkop wrote that our sages clarified monetary law for us in cases of doubt. What is the force of their decision? Common sense, or something beyond that?
Gracias
Answer
A. I am not familiar with anyone who disagrees with him directly (although one could perhaps debate among the medieval authorities he cites as proof for his approach whether whoever disagrees with them would also disagree with him). I recall that Rabbi Shmuel Fisher, in Beit Yishai, disagrees and argues that there cannot be a valid norm without a command. In my opinion, he is mistaken.
B. No.
C. No. This is Jewish law, not meta-halakhah. Perhaps there is a meta-command here.
D. For the sages of the Talmud, this was apparently based on common sense, and for us it is binding because the Talmud has authority.
Discussion on Answer
Just terms. Meta-halakhah is what underlies Jewish law (the infrastructure that precedes Jewish law and on which it is based), like metaphysics (meta-physics).
Meta-command is what precedes a command.
I wrote that Rabbi Shimon Shkop’s theory of law is not meta-halakhah, because it is Jewish law and not what comes before it. But it is a meta-command, because it is Jewish law for which we have no command. It precedes the command. In other words: there is a part of Jewish law that is not the product of a command.
Thanks for the response
I’m ignorant in this matter—what is meta-halakhah or meta-command?
Thanks