Q&A: Various Topics
Originally published:
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Various Topics
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi!
1. What is meta-halakha?
2. If the Holy One, blessed be He, created the laws of logic, does that necessarily mean that He is subject to them?
3. According to what are the halakhic prohibitions of the commandment against cross-dressing determined? This question came to me because in the Shulchan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 182) it writes that a man is forbidden to look in a mirror, but today that is permitted.
Answer
- Issues that deal with the way Jewish law operates, and questions that deal with the assumptions underlying various laws and Jewish law in general.
- I didn’t understand this oxymoron. You can ask whether He created the laws and whether He is subject to them or not. But because He created them, therefore He is subject to them? If anything, then because He created them, He is not subject to them. As for the question itself, see my article here: https://mikyab.net/%d7%9b%d7%aa%d7%91%d7%99%d7%9d/%d7%9e%d7%90%d7%9e%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%9d/%d7%a2%d7%9c-%d7%aa%d7%95%d7%a8%d7%aa-%d7%94%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%95%d7%a0%d7%98%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%95%d7%98%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%90%d7%9e%d7%95%d7%a0%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%a1%d7%aa%d7%99%d7%a8%d7%aa%d7%99 and in many other places on the site.
3. According to the accepted norms in the relevant place and time, among reasonable people.