Q&A: A Wise Deaf Person
A Wise Deaf Person
Question
When deaf-mutes are in fact intelligent, are they still legally treated as deaf-mutes, or as normal people? Apparently one could bring proof that they are like normal people from the fact that “an adult standing over them” is effective—that is, the adult teaches them to do things properly, and that helps.
Answer
Today there are ways to teach deaf people to speak and understand, so nowadays the question really does arise whether the law still remains as it was. In my opinion, it does not. I mentioned here in the past that Rabbi Benny Lau tried to examine this with quite a few major halakhic decisors and had difficulty getting such a ruling out of them. But Rabbi Asher Weiss agreed with him on this. In my opinion it is completely obvious.
Discussion on Answer
As far as I remember, there is no source that exempts a deaf person or an insane person. It’s a logical inference, and plainly the reasoning is lack of understanding. So when there is understanding, there is no exemption.
There is also a source, from the word “man.”
I thought this was just a quick offhand question, but it seems this is a broad topic in its own right.
That’s not a source. Why exclude a deaf person and not a short person?
Ah, nice, okay.
Just to note that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein apparently does not rule like you (Yoreh De’ah, part 4, section 17).
Maybe the law still remains as it was, because deaf-mutes have a certain status in reality (something like an ontological defect) that completely removes from them the ability to effect any legal validity whatsoever, and it isn’t just a matter of lack of intention and awareness (which can be taught), no?