Q&A: The prohibition of actively causing a minor to violate person-based prohibitions
The prohibition of actively causing a minor to violate person-based prohibitions
Question
Hello Rabbi,
It says in the Torah, “You shall not eat them, for they are detestable,” and the Talmud expounds this as: “You shall not eat them — you shall not feed them to others, to warn adults regarding minors”. The Talmud’s intent is that an adult is warned by the Torah not to place into a minor’s hands something forbidden — that is, not to feed it to him with his own hands. The halakhic decisors wrote that this rule, the prohibition of actively causing a minor to transgress, was not said only about forbidden foods but also about the other Torah prohibitions. I saw that the halakhic decisors also take Sabbath prohibitions to be included in this prohibition of actively causing a minor to transgress (even though there is no explicit source for this in the Talmud). I wanted to ask you whether it makes sense here to distinguish between object-based prohibitions and person-based prohibitions. In other words, the verse spoke about prohibitions of eating (object-based prohibitions), so it is natural to extend the prohibition to object-based prohibitions generally — but from where do we extend it also to person-based prohibitions?
Best regards,
Answer
This requires a longer discussion. First of all, it is obvious that this applies to Sabbath prohibitions as well. See Yevamot 113, where it is explained that this applies to all Torah prohibitions by an inductive derivation from creeping creatures, blood, and impurity. Beyond that, regarding Sabbath prohibitions there may even be a greater obligation to stop him, as Rashba wrote at the beginning of the chapter “Mi Shehechshikh,” on the Mishnah about a minor who comes to extinguish a fire, that on the Sabbath there is a special law of “your son’s rest,” and his words are brought by the Magen Avraham. I discussed this in the column on uprooted laws.
However, the Magen Avraham does indeed distinguish between a prohibition and a positive commandment, and between an ordinary prohibition and a time-dependent prohibition (which is commonly understood as a person-based prohibition). But as I said, regarding the Sabbath it seems there is no room to be lenient.