What I have not figured out in Rav Shach on the Rambam in Laws about Murderers and Guarding of One's Life [chapter 9 law number 6] is probably simple to see but I have been perplexed about this. He needs that the Rambam should ignore our Gemara [Bava batra chapter 2] that says you only measure towards the close city in the mountains. If we are talking about a person that was murdered where there are lost of cities around you by the largest city. Not the closest. The Rambam ignores that Gemara and says you always go by the largest city.
The way Rav Shach answers this Rambam is perplexing to me.
The basic idea Rav Shach borrows from is 10 stores. Some sell permitted meat and some sell forbidden meat. If one goes into one store to buy food and forgot which one he does not go by the majority because כל קבוע כמחצה על מחצה דמי "Things that are set in place you consider to be half and half." That is you do not go by the majority. But if the meat is found outside the stores then you go by the majority. So we already have a way to understand things. Our Gemara that is looking for a reason to ignore the largest city and go by the closest can be going parallel to the case of one buys in a store but forgot which one. There you do not go by the majority or largest.
But the Rambam has some other reason to think our case is like finding meat outside the stores.
So he has a ready made answer. The Yerushalmi in which there is a argument if the calf [Egla Arufa] is brought for the murderer or the murdered.We can say the question is from where did the murdered come from. Or the murderer. In either case this is where seem fuzzy to me. What Rav Shach wants to do is to say the Gemara that says you go by the closest is because it is going like the Yerushalmi. And the Rambam would claim he is going like our Gemara.
This is hard for me to get. The Yerushalmi says it is for the murderer. And there we would say it is a case of half and half. [This is what Rav Shach wants.] And our Gemara would say the calf [that is brought into a wadi and killed] would say we go by the murdered. And that would be like the case the meat is found outside the stores where we go by the majority.
On one hand the idea of applying the Gemara abut ten stores [from Hulin chapter 7] makes some degree of sense because of the difference between when to use majority and when not. But on the other hand the gemara in Bava Batra does not at all seem clear to mean to only measure close when it is a city in the mountains. Plus the verse itself says to measure to the nearby city. If the way the achronim are understanding this sugia that it is referring to a city that is by itself in the mountains it seems to make no sense to measure to a nearby city when there is no other one.
[My own guess about this problem would be to look at Kapach. [i.e the original Rambam that was from Yemen back at the time of the Rambam. Sometimes there are slight differences which clear up all teh problems.]]
The way Rav Shach answers this Rambam is perplexing to me.
The basic idea Rav Shach borrows from is 10 stores. Some sell permitted meat and some sell forbidden meat. If one goes into one store to buy food and forgot which one he does not go by the majority because כל קבוע כמחצה על מחצה דמי "Things that are set in place you consider to be half and half." That is you do not go by the majority. But if the meat is found outside the stores then you go by the majority. So we already have a way to understand things. Our Gemara that is looking for a reason to ignore the largest city and go by the closest can be going parallel to the case of one buys in a store but forgot which one. There you do not go by the majority or largest.
But the Rambam has some other reason to think our case is like finding meat outside the stores.
So he has a ready made answer. The Yerushalmi in which there is a argument if the calf [Egla Arufa] is brought for the murderer or the murdered.We can say the question is from where did the murdered come from. Or the murderer. In either case this is where seem fuzzy to me. What Rav Shach wants to do is to say the Gemara that says you go by the closest is because it is going like the Yerushalmi. And the Rambam would claim he is going like our Gemara.
This is hard for me to get. The Yerushalmi says it is for the murderer. And there we would say it is a case of half and half. [This is what Rav Shach wants.] And our Gemara would say the calf [that is brought into a wadi and killed] would say we go by the murdered. And that would be like the case the meat is found outside the stores where we go by the majority.
On one hand the idea of applying the Gemara abut ten stores [from Hulin chapter 7] makes some degree of sense because of the difference between when to use majority and when not. But on the other hand the gemara in Bava Batra does not at all seem clear to mean to only measure close when it is a city in the mountains. Plus the verse itself says to measure to the nearby city. If the way the achronim are understanding this sugia that it is referring to a city that is by itself in the mountains it seems to make no sense to measure to a nearby city when there is no other one.
[My own guess about this problem would be to look at Kapach. [i.e the original Rambam that was from Yemen back at the time of the Rambam. Sometimes there are slight differences which clear up all teh problems.]]
