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Q&A: Is a Double Doubt a Probabilistic Matter or a Conceptual One?

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Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Is a Double Doubt a Probabilistic Matter or a Conceptual One?

Question

The Shakh, in his rules of doubts, brings the well-known rule that a double doubt that cannot be reversed is not considered a double doubt. He gives the example of an animal that was slaughtered and then a bone was found that was not covered by flesh, which is a sign of a non-kosher fatal defect. The doubt is whether this happened before the slaughter or after the slaughter, and if you say it was after the slaughter, perhaps it did not protrude outward. The Shakh writes about this that it is impossible to begin the doubt with the second doubt—whether it protruded outward or not—since if you say that it did protrude outward, then it necessarily follows that we are dealing with a case after the slaughter, because before the slaughter it makes no practical difference to me whether it protruded outward or not.
My question is: if conceptually, when I say that it protruded outward I must be speaking about after the slaughter, does that also mean that probabilistically there is more reason to assume it is non-kosher? Or are the rules of double doubt not probabilistic but conceptual?

Answer

Allow me to delay my answer, because this is planned to be my next column (after the one that just went up now about two majorities).

Discussion on Answer

Michi (2023-12-28)

I’m about to upload my column (613), and there you’ll also see an explanation of the law of reversibility, and I’ll also explain why I do not agree with the Shakh you cited. The fact that there is no practical difference does not make the doubt non-reversible.

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