Daily Talk
Swing a consecrated axe and you have not yet trespassed; you have to dull the blade first. Drink once from a consecrated golden cup and you have already trespassed, though the cup is exactly as you found it. Why does the law grow stricter as the object becomes harder to harm?
The Gold That Cannot Be Damaged
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About This Talk
Chapters 5 through 7 of Hilchot Me'ilah map the outer edge of the sacred: what consecration actually reaches, what counts as taking from it, and whose hand is answerable when consecrated property is spent. The measure throughout is a p'rutah, the smallest coin there is, and the surprise is that the law is hardest on exactly the things that cannot be harmed.