Now we can understand the Gemara in Sanhedrin [64b]:
If one gave all of his children over to Molech he is פטור because the pasuk says "from" his seed and not "all" his seed.
Asked Tosfos:
העביר כל זרעו פטור - וא"ת מקמא מיחייב ליה?
Once he passes the first child through the fire he is already חייב so how can he then become פטור when he passes the rest of his children through?
Tosfos answer that it must be either talking about where he has only one child or that he passes them through in one shot.
The Kesef Mishna [KS"M] has a different approach. He says that after passing the first child through, the חיוב is in limbo. If he doesn't pass all of them through then he is חייב. If he does pass the rest of them through then he is פטור.
Since Tosfos didn't offer that explanation it must be that it is simple to them that it is not true and if he passes them through one by one then he is חייב on the earlier ones and can't suddenly become פטור when the last one comes through.
Asked the Rashash [who took the approach of the KS"M without mentioning him]: We find this idea of חיובים being in limbo with regard to an עיר נדחת!! When an individual serves idols he receives סקילה but when it is the majority of the town serves then they receive סייף. According to R' Yehuda even AFTER there was a גמר דין for סקילה we incarcerate them and wait to see if more people are going to serve and his חיוב is transformed into סייף. Here also we should be able to change his דין if he gave the rest of his children to Molech [from חייב to פטור].
Another question: The sefer Divrei Emes [עמ' ק"כ] cites the Sifre on the pasuk
"כל הבא אל וכל אשר באהל"
"אין לי אלא בא מקצתו, בא כולו מנין? ת"ל וכל אשר באהל"
The Sifre learns that not only when PART [מקצתו] of the object enters the tent in which there is a dead body does it become Tamei but even if ALL of the object entered the tent it becomes Tamei. The Sifre explains that we need a special limmud because the law may not be derived from a kal va-chomer [because we can't punish based on a kal vachomer - אין עונשין מן הדין].
We also have the drasha in Makkos 5b to include that one is חייב for being with one's sister who is related to him both from his mother and father and we can't learn that din from a kal vachomer from ones maternal sister [because אין עונשין מן הדין].
Now from the question of Tosfos we see that they learned that מקצתו is included in כולו because they said that we can't exclude כולו [i.e. when he passes all the children to Molech] when he was already חייב on מקצתו. When the part joins the whole its din doesn't change. Yet, from the two sources we just cited we see that this is not so and מקצתו isn't included in כולו and part of an entity is in a completely different category than the entire entity. So why don't we say the SAME THING about giving ones children to Molech and even though he gave some of them already, giving all of them puts him in a completely different category [and he would thus be פטור]?
The answer is that there is a distinction between the case of Molech and the other cases. In the case of the עיר נדחת, when most of the town serves idols, the part that served earlier becomes a new entity. The part that previously served now joins everyone and becomes part of a new whole. The "part" becomes a new מציאות when joining the whole. When the object entered partially into the tent and then entered completely we say that the מקצת is transformed into a new entity - part of the whole. It is a new מציאות so we need a pasuk to teach that it is Tamei. So too with one's sister. A half sister is not a complete sister, so the former doesn't necessarily have the same halachic status as the latter. We therefore need a pasuk to teach both independently.
But when to comes to Molech it was axiomatic ["pashut" in French] to Tosfos that one child has NOTHING to do with a second child and after giving one to Molech what he does with other children has no halachic ramifications or impact on the act of giving the first child. There is NO צירוף, no glue, that will combine one child with the next. So if he is already חייב for one child, how can he suddenly become פטור when he gives future children to Molech? So Tosfos' question was valid. And the answer that he passed them all at once doesn't necessarily mean EXACTLY at the same second [because that is virtually impossible - א"א לצמצם - see ערוך לנר] but that it was done תוך כדי דיבר creating a צירוף between the children.
With this we can explain the Toras Kohanim [צו פ"י] which says that only a יחיד gets כרת for consuming חלב but not a צבור. Asked the ר"ש משאנץ - How is it possible for the entire צבור to have consumed חלב at EXACTLY the same millisecond?? And if they ate it one after the other then they are יחידים and will thus be חייבים כרת?? Ahhhh!!
Rav Yosef Engel [בית האצר ח"א כלל נ"ג] argued back that we see regarding עיר הנדחת that the din changes after the majority serve the idols from סקילה to סייף so why can't it change here also?
The Margaliyos Hayam added that the Yerushalmi in Horiyos [1-1] says that if a יחיד ate חלב based on a mistaken psak of the Beis Din he is held in limbo and if the majority of people ate חלב then he is פטור from a korban and a פר העלם דבר של צבור is brought. So we again see that a din can change from a יחיד to a צבור??
The answer is that in the case where one person ate חלב, there is no צירוף and connection between him and the other people, so it is not possible for his din to change. That is what the ר"ש משאנץ meant [ask him next time you see him!!]. But in the case of the עיר נדחת there is a din of רוב עיר and thus the יחידים connect, combine and coagulate with the rest of the people and they take upon a new status of being a "city" that served idols. So the חיוב of the יחידים is transformed to סייף. So too when it comes to a פר העלם דבר של צבור, there is a צירוף מן התורה of the יחידים with those who later ate the חלב that negates the חיוב קרבן of the יחידים. The יחידים become part of a new entity because of this צירוף. But when one person eats חלב and then the rest of the צבור eats חלב there is no צירוף between them created by the Torah that would remove the דין כרת from the first person.
שפתיים ישק!! 😘
