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1 Elliot Pasik, Esq. on 2008 01 24

I hadn’t read Rabbi Haber’s divrei Torah in a while, and I now have charata.

The limits of daas Torah and rabbinic fallibility seem to be the topics of the day, and Rabbi Haber delivers a timely message.

2 Micha on 2008 01 24

I’m not sure I understand the difference between “ends” and “means”. We do things in order to change ourselves and the world around us. We don’t move just to move, we move in order to get something accomplished. (Even if that “something” happens to be exercise.)

And so, every action, has moral weight based upon its consequences. Some of those consequences are more immediate, such as “making a deal with avodah zarah”, and some may be more removed “the deal won’t be enforced by anyone and so all will be well”.

The expression “the ends does not justify the means” does not imply that it’s wrong to cost someone a penny in order to get to the other side of the street to save someone’s life. Consequences that are later in time than others can still outweigh those others.

Moshe Rabbeinu’s choice was wrong because he thought the long view was the more important factor when it wasn’t.

Or, “the ends are not inherently more important than the means just because they are the ends.” But they could at times justify them—given sufficiently important ends. Just as any other moral decision that involves the least of evils can we choose to live with committing the lesser evil.

-micha