Melamed Leho'il Part II מלמד להועיל חלק ב YU Torah miTzion Beit Midrash http://www.torontotorah.com Melamed Leho'il Part II Teshuva 1 Teshuva 2 Teshuva 3 Teshuva 4 Teshuva 5 Teshuva 6 Teshuva 7 Teshuva 8 Teshuva 9 Teshuva 10 Teshuva 11 Teshuva 12 Teshuva 13 Teshuva 14 Teshuva 15 Teshuva 16 Teshuva 17 Teshuva 18 Teshuva 19 Teshuva 20 Teshuva 21 Teshuva 22 Teshuva 23 Teshuva 24 Teshuva 25 Teshuva 26 Teshuva 27 Teshuva 28 Teshuva 29 Teshuva 30 Teshuva 31 Teshuva 32 Teshuva 33 Teshuva 34 Teshuva 35 Teshuva 36 Teshuva 37 Teshuva 38 Teshuva 39 Teshuva 40 Teshuva 41 Teshuva 42 Teshuva 43 Teshuva 44 Teshuva 45 Teshuva 46 Teshuva 47 Teshuva 48 Teshuva 49 Teshuva 50 Teshuva 51 Teshuva 52 Teshuva 53 Teshuva 54 Teshuva 55 Teshuva 56 Teshuva 57 Teshuva 58 Teshuva 59 Teshuva 60 Teshuva 61 Teshuva 62 Teshuva 63 Teshuva 64 Teshuva 65 Teshuva 66 Teshuva 67 Teshuva 68 Teshuva 69 Teshuva 70 Teshuva 71 Teshuva 72 Teshuva 73 Teshuva 74 Teshuva 75 Teshuva 76 Teshuva 77 Teshuva 78 Teshuva 79 Teshuva 80 Teshuva 81 Teshuva 82 Teshuva 83 Teshuva 84 Teshuva 85 Teshuva 86 Teshuva 87 Teshuva 88 Teshuva 89 Teshuva 90 Teshuva 91 Teshuva 92 Teshuva 93 Teshuva 94 Teshuva 95 Teshuva 96 Teshuva 97 Teshuva 98 Teshuva 99 Teshuva 100 Teshuva 101 Teshuva 102 Teshuva 103 Teshuva 104 Teshuva 105 Teshuva 106 Teshuva 107 Teshuva 108 Teshuva 109 Teshuva 110 Teshuva 111 Teshuva 112 Teshuva 113 Teshuva 114 Teshuva 115 I saw in Vayilaket Yosef (3-4:74) that R'Yehudah Leib Marmorstein discussed the case of a youth ‎whose father had not allowed him to be circumcised. The youth now has died at the age of ‎sixteen, and Rabbi Marmorstein ruled that his grave should be distanced nine cubits from the ‎other graves; see his reasoning there. In my humble opinion, one should agree with him in ‎practice, but not due to his reason. He decided that it was obvious that this youth was a wicked ‎individual, and we do not bury the wicked alongside the righteous.(Sanhedrin 47a). One cannot ‎argue that the youth was a "child held captive among non- Jews" [who is not viewed as responsible ‎for his actions], for it is well known… and that Jews need to be circumcised.‎ However, who could tell us that [this youth] definitely knew he wasn't circumcised? Does every ‎sixteen-year-old child know the nature of circumcision and the visual difference? Perhaps he was ‎modest and never looked at it his entire life. Think about it [further], due to our many sins there ‎are areas in Germany where the mohelim are severe sinners and do not perform priah [lit. ‎revealing; peeling off thee pithelium]! Many children are therefore as though they were not ‎circumcised [at all], for we learn, "One who circumcised without priah is as if he had not ‎circumcised." (Mishnah Shabbat 19:6)However, none of them know that they are not circumcised; ‎certainly, they are like" children held captive among non-Jews". Further, even if they were to learn ‎afterward that priah is necessary, they wouldn't know that priah had not been performed on ‎them. Moreover: Even if you would say that he knew that he wasn't circumcised and despite that ‎he didn't circumcise himself, one could argue that he did so because he didn't want to pain himself, ‎and not because he kicked[i.e. rejected] the commandment of circumcision. If so, all would agree ‎that he was only a rebel concerning one matter, due to his desires. It seems to me that even in ‎Hungary the custom is not to distance the grave of such a rebel from other graves - in Germany, ‎the custom is certainly not so - and so there is no legal reason to change the youth's burial from the ‎burial of other Jewish sinners. ‎ However, it seems to me that in order to fence in the matter one should prevent his burial among ‎other graves. This is meant to punish those heretics who nullify the covenant of our forefather ‎Avraham, not circumcising their sons, so that they shall understand and fear that this will cause ‎their sons to be entirely separated from the seed of Israel. Even after death, they will not have a ‎grave among the children of our forefather Avraham. Particularly in our time, when this ‎wickedness has spread due to our many sins, there is [a need] to establish boundaries in order to ‎distance those wicked ones from Jewry as much as possible...‎