Q&A: Causality
Originally published:
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Causality
Question
I saw that Rabbi Shimon Fisher, in Beit Yishai sec. 63 (you cited him in your lectures on Gittin regarding retroactive clarification), writes that when a legal effect takes hold, it spreads from that point in time backward as well. How is that possible? (From his words there it is clear that a legal effect is also a metaphysical reality.)
Answer
I assume you’re raising the question בעקבות my recent columns (459–466) on causality. So you can read there. I explained it there in great detail.
Precisely from those columns it seems there is no room for Rabbi Shimon Fisher’s view, and that is why I asked whether you had retracted what you adopted from his approach in your lectures on Gittin.