Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Kesubos 5b - Kilkul and Tikkun

I decided to go light today:
The gemara has 2 possible prohibitions when doing bi'ah rishonah on shabbos, 1. Making an opening which is a violation of building, 2. Causing a wound which is N'tilas Neshama. But, the gemara says that both of these issues could be considered kilkul rather than tikkun. R' Shlomo Eiger raises a question (from avodas hagershuni) that we find in Shabbos 105b regarding tearing one's shirt out of anger on shabbos, that even though it is kilkul to the shirt, it is still a torah violation of shabbos since it accomplishes "nachas ruach l'yitzro". Meaning, that the tikun of calming down one's anger overrides the kilkul of the shirt, similarly satisfying his yetzer by having bi'ah on shabbos should be a tikkun that overrides the kilkul?
I am not sure what the avodas hagershuni answers since i don't have a copy. I am also not sure what the ba'alei mussar have to say about letting out anger by tearing and breaking things. But, on a very practical level it seems to me that whether or not we encourage people to tear and break items out of anger, it certainly is an effective way to accomplish the goal of alleviating his anger and therefore qualifies as an overall tikkun. But, when it comes to satisfying the yetzer for physical desires, the gemara tells us that "eiver kattan yeish b'adam, mas'bio ra'eiv...", meaning the more you fulfill the desires, the stronger they get. Therefore, we can't consider satisfying one's yetzer by having tashmish to be a tikkun since ultimately it will have the reverse effect in that it will make him have stronger desires (although the gemara understands on 4a that after having bi'ah once, his yetzer horah will not be as strong, at least for that woman).

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