Q&A: Subjective "Do Not Place a Stumbling Block"
Subjective "Do Not Place a Stumbling Block"
Question
Am I obligated (at least morally, if not halakhically) to warn someone that he is doing something that, in my opinion, there is no problem doing, but I know that in his opinion it is forbidden?
A mild example: someone comes to eat meat with Rabbinate kosher certification, and I know that he does not rely on it. (This is a mild example because presumably in this case he does not hold that the meat is completely non-kosher, but is simply personally stringent.)
2. To feed him myself would certainly be forbidden because of his autonomy, right? (In the question above I only did not inform him that, in his view, he is violating something forbidden; whereas here I am personally serving him the dish.)
Answer
1. Definitely. See my article The Price of Tolerance and column 503.
2. Indeed, see my above-mentioned articles.
Discussion on Answer
Do I have a moral obligation to help him realize his right to make a mistake?
I don’t see a difference. There is a moral obligation to help him act autonomously just as there is an obligation not to cause him to stumble. The example in Sukkah of decorations that are set apart by a significant distance (Ritva on Sukkah 10) indicates that one must tell them to pay attention that the decorations are set apart, meaning that there too the issue is informing them that there is a prohibition involved in the act, and not actual causing someone to stumble.
Maybe I missed something. But it seems to me that the Rabbi did not really discuss the above situation, where I did not enter my friend’s autonomous territory; rather, in passive omission, I simply did not get up from my place to enlighten him about something that in my opinion (as a communitarian) has no real substance.