Half slave and half free to the Rambam eats neither from his own Passover nor from his master. To the Raavad he eats from his own..The issue is which way is like the later mishna. The Raavad holds  his own is like the later mishna. The Rambam is holding it was the first mishna that held he eats of his own. The later Mishna said he must be let to go free since he can not be married to a Israelit [female Israeli], nor can he be married to a slave woman because he is half free.

Tosphot in Bava Batra asks on this that letting him go free is transgressing a lav/negative prohibition. And he answers that being married to a Israelit is a positive command which pushes off a negative command.  

[Half slave half free means owned by two masters, but one freed him. So he is now half free. The point of freeing him completely is that as a slave he can have a slave wife. As free he can have a regular Israelit. But half and half he can have neither, so he must be freed.]

Rav Shach pointed out a reason the Rambam took the approach that he did. I.e that the first mishna held women do not need to be appointed on any specific passover. [This opinion is brought in the Rosh in Nedarim page 36 side A] [And thus neither do slaves.]  So it makes sense that a 1/2 slave 1/2 free person would be able to eat from his or her own passover and not be required to join the with the group of his master. [But then why he eats only his own? Why could he not also eat from his masters passover?] But the later mishna holds that women do need to be appointed on a specific passover, so a half slave and half free person would thus not be able to eat of neither his own nor that of his master unless he is totally set free.  

 z28 midi file Music file

The type of government is the cause of people's character, not the result.

 In the Laws, Plato shows that the type of government is the cause of people's character, not the result.  so while DNA and environment have been considered, the counter intuitive fact is the government affects the very character of the people growing up in it. -for better or worse.

I mean to say the USA Constitution was product of James Madison with the impute of other great thinkers. But after it is in place, it affects the nature of Americans.

People will believe only in the absurd. Belief is the opposite of knowledge.

 The problem with the news is:  People do not believe in something unless they have read it in the newspapers or seen it on TV. [President Nixon said something like that.] Thus result is that newspapers having that much power began to say what they wanted people to believe. They could create their own news and people would believe it.  

But the issue is really deeper. People will believe only in the absurd. It is not as if they will believe in what is reasonable, and as a second best believe in the absurd also. Not at all. Rather to be absurd is the prerequisite of belief. So you see why the Rambam has the first of the Ten Commandments as being to know the existence of the First Cause, not to believe. Belief is the opposite of knowledge.

Socrates actually dealt with this issue in one of the shorter dialogs--I forget which. But not everything that is absurd is really absurd. Sometimes it is simply beyond reason. 

[Women nowadays -tend to think of themselves as goddesses.-which they are not.]

 Marriage nowadays seems to have devolved. There was a time it was it was a strong institution in people's souls. Nowadays it is all about business. A way for the woman to make money, for a long as it is convenient. So what I think is the approach of the concubine פילגש makes the most sense. Since we find that Caleb ben Yefuna  had a few, as we see on Chronicles chapter 2 verses from around 46.

And he was the only person in Torah of whom it is stated וימלא אחרי השם He went totally after God. So this is not a sin.   

At any rate, this is the Raavad, Ramban, and other Rishonim besides the Rambam. 

[Women nowadays -tend to think of themselves as goddesses.-which they are not.]

 z67 This is a Midi music file. Just finished now. [But that means it probably needs lots of editing. So I present it as it seems best to me this minute.]z67 nwc

 Group identification is a kind of idolatry- when a persons allegiance is towards groups values instead of towards objective morality  And even though objective morality is hard to know, that still is no excuse to abdicate. So while loyalty towards ones family and friends and nation are important that is far different from group identification.