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Halacha applied differently dependent on the situation
I recall asking someone about whether a Jew could work in a non-kosher restaurant. One of the opinions I heard was that a Jew shouldn't because "odds are" that the person, as a waiter, will end up serving treif food to a Jewish customer. I don't know, then, if this would only apply in areas of the country/world in which there are Jews (or is the concern that someone who doesn't know he is Jewish will be served), or whether this is a lo plug case and it would apply even in a place in which it is known that there are no Jews.
Are there other instances in Judaism in which halacha is applied because "odds are" and which would be applied differently in other places/times?
I am looking for examples which are not related to questions of bittul (rov, shishim etc) of specific items of food and I'm not looking for case-by-case decisions that are dependent on financial loss.
edit------I found some notes I wrote to myself last week and they seem to be connected---------
If I recall correctly, originally, when people were called to the torah, each person called up read "his" section. So there had to have been a time when the expectation that all could read was grounded in a reality. This was changed to a single reader so as not to embarrass those who were not able to read. But that means that in an earlier time, there was an expectation that the average person could read (7 out of 10 every shabbat).
Is it reasonable to deduce that, during a certain time period (before there was enough decline in literacy rates to trigger change) that synagogues had to begin to be worried about embarrassing anyone – if the possibility that even a single person could be embarrassed was such a concern then the practice of expecting people to read their Aliyah would never have been established (it would be codifying a michshol for the gabbai).
Could the decision have been local? A village of tzaddikim b'nei tzaddikim would not develop this concern as quickly as a random village of lesser educated people.
Would it (the expectation that a person called up will read his aliyah) still be forbidden in a local minyan today made up only of professional ba'alei kriah?
1 answer
Anecdotally, if people know you're a Baal Koreh, they will often let you - or ask you to - Layn your Aliyah. Many years ago I used to help a Sephardi Minyan (I am 100% Ashkenazi) with anything from one Aliyah to the whole Parasha, planned in advance each week, until they eventually had enough people of their own who could Layn. Years later I would still occasionally go to the Minyan even though I wasn't Layning. One time I was there for Pinchas and they called me up for Chamishi. The Baal Koreh handed me the Yad - he knew beyond any reasonable doubt that I could Layn it without preparation as that Aliyah is the same as weekday Rosh Chodesh.
As I understand it, for many things like the aforementioned working in a non-Kosher restaurant but also things like how you do things in a hospital, it is quite different inside vs. outside Israel.
Outside Israel, there is a reasonable assumption that the vast majority of customers in a non-Kosher restaurant will not be Jewish, and so a random customer on any given day will not be Jewish. That in turn would generally mean that with certain exceptions, there would be relatively little problem working in a non-Kosher restaurant. (There are still a number of issues, separate from the question of whether a random customer might be Jewish.) On the other hand, inside Israel, working in a non-Kosher restaurant (unless, perhaps, it catered specifically to non-Jews) has a real concern that any random customer, in fact the majority of customers, is likely to be Jewish.
Similarly, the vast majority of doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc. in a hospital outside of Israel will be non-Jewish. That has significant ramifications for what you can do - or more importantly, what you can ask someone else to do - for a sick person on Shabbos. For a person who is in a life-threatening situation this is not an issue. But for someone who is sick in a lesser way there are things that a non-Jew can on Shabbos directly request of a non-Jew but that the Jew can't do themselves (or ask of another Jew). If you have reasonable suspicion that a particular person is Jewish then the situation changes. However, in Israel, most of the staff is generally presumed to be Jewish and these issues have to be handled much more carefully.
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