יום חמישי, ז׳ אלול תשפ״וThursday, August 20, 2026
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Raphael Grunfeld received semicha in Yoreh Yoreh from Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem of America and in Yadin Yadin from Rav Dovid Feinstein. A partner at the Wall Street law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, Rabbi Grunfeld is the author of “Ner Eyal: A Guide to Seder Nashim, Nezikin, Kodashim, Taharot and Zerayim” and “Ner Eyal: A Guide to the Laws of Shabbat and Festivals in Seder Moed.” Questions for the author can be sent to rafegrunfeld@gmail.com.
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The court is concerned the plaintiff might be exploiting the heir’s ignorance of his father’s business affairs and is trying to get paid a second time.
The identity of the heirs and their order of succession cannot be changed by testamentary disposition in a will.
The Torah does not impose an oath on a defendant in a dispute involving land, servants, or promissory notes.
Havdalah, according to most opinions, is of rabbinic origin. Accordingly, the rabbis have a more flexible approach.
Another example of a case in which the Modeh Bemikzat oath of partial admission imposed by the Torah does not apply is where the amount admitted is less than a minimum amount of two kesef silver coins.
The plaintiff is entitled to the entire maneh without having to swear.
The burden of proof required in dinei nefashot, capital cases, is heavier than the burden of proof required dinei mamonot, monetary cases.
In this case, if the defendant had wanted to lie, he could have – instead of admitting he snatched it and explaining that it was stolen from him – simply denied that he snatched it altogether.
Although it is preferable to live in Israel, there is no obligation to go. However, once you live in Israel, there is an obligation not to leave.
A defendant who is faced with one witness who testifies that he borrowed money is allowed to swear that he never borrowed any money and receive judgment in his favor.
The behavior of Rabbi Akiva’s students left them particularly vulnerable between Pesach and Shavuot since this period is a time of celestial judgment.
Whereas one week is sufficient to restore an individual to his natural state of divine purity, the entire nation required seven weeks.
The Torah believes the testimony of one witness that the defendant does not deny under oath – as if it were the testimony of two witnesses.
In order for an admission of a debt or for the forgiveness of a debt to be effective, it must be accompanied by some overt manifestation of serious intent.
On Chol HaMoed some work is prohibited and some is permitted. According to some opinions, the work prohibition is biblical; according to others, it’s rabbinical.
If the chametz has already been legally nullified and physically burned, so that it is neither owned nor possessed by a Jew, why is it necessary to sell it to a non‑Jew?
In all of these situations, the person volunteering the admission is exempt from any payment.
The reason the defendant must pay the money or return the item if he admits that he borrowed the money, stole it, or had something of value deposited with him but does not know whether he repaid the money or gave the item back, is as follows.
Glass cannot be kashered or used at all on Pesach because it is made of sand and is halachically considered earthenware.
If chametz became mixed with non-chametz on Pesach, the mixture is prohibited on Pesach even if the ratio of the permitted non‑chametz to the forbidden chametz is 1,000 to 1.
So too a person who admits he stole part of the money claimed, or who is confronted by only one witness who testifies to the theft, remains eligible to take an oath.
The fact that two witnesses testify that the defendant borrowed the amount in dispute from the plaintiff does not discredit the defendant or disqualify him from taking the Shevuat Heiset oath of denial.
The prohibition of chametz on Pesach means that chametz may not be eaten or enjoyed, may not be owned or possessed, and must be removed from one's premises.
The irrevocable consequences of taking a false Modeh Bemiktztat oath of partial admission would deter him from employing such delay tactics.
According to Jewish law and indeed any law, the best way to avoid such unpleasant situations is to be very specific in the contract of sale.
For example, the defendant testifies that he repaid 180 dinarim but regarding the balance of 20 dinarim claims he does not owe it for the following reason
Consent, however, is an elastic phrase under Jewish law and can be stretched almost to breaking point.
If the deceased left no children, no descendants of his children, no father and no siblings, one looks further up the paternal family tree to see whether a grandfather survived him.
The security interest is equivalent to heilach, tendering payment of the debt, because it empowers the court to seize and sell the defendant’s land to cover the debt.
What happens if the occupier claims he purchased the house from a third party?
If the creditor responds to this unsolicited admission by thanking the debtor for reminding him of the debt, the finder is still absolved from taking an oath.
The reason one witness supporting the defendant excuses him from taking the Modeh Bemiktzat oath of partial admission is based on the same logic that obliges him to take the oath when one witness testifies against him.
The court will ask Shimon: Why did you stand silently by for three years? Why did you not challenge Reuven or at least lodge an objection in the presence of two witnesses?
Even if the litigant is sophisticated in matters of Jewish business law, he still must specify his pleadings.
According to Rabbi Yosi, as long as one remains within the confines of one’s own property and one does not actively damage one’s neighbor’s property, one has the right to act as one wishes.
There is nothing illegal about looking at other people just as there is nothing illegal with talking about other people.
When it comes to the payment of debts, halacha, like other systems of law, struggles with two competing concerns.
The freedom to quit a job in the middle, like the exercise of all freedom, may need to be restrained to the extent that it hurts innocent people.
The length of the advance eviction notice required by the halacha depends on the season in which the eviction occurs and the location of the premises.
The loan portion of the capital is not at risk because, under the terms of the heter iska, Mamon will get it back whether the business prospers or fails.
Ribbit is defined in the Talmud as agar natar, which means any compensation, whether in money or in kind, a Jew receives from a fellow Jew for having to wait for payment.
In thirty-six different places the Torah warns us to be kind to people who have converted to Judaism.
The right to a refund or to the return of the purchase price or the item, as the case may be, is subject to a time limit.
What incentive does the seller have to salvage the object from fire if, at the end of the day, the loss is for the buyer?
The Torah requires us to return lost property to its owner. It follows that if the lost property has no owner, there is no duty to return it and the finder may keep it.
What happens if two people are holding on to abandoned property and each claims to have found it first?
Looking from mother to father I would wonder: Is Rosh Hashanah a happy day or a sad day?
From this decree on, the two days of Rosh Hashanah – unlike the two days of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot – were no longer celebrated out of doubt but out of certainty.
Even in the Diaspora Jews need some Jewish judicial system for dealing with one another.
Consent, however, is an elastic phrase under Jewish law and can be stretched almost to breaking point.
When the fast is postponed to Sunday or when Tisha B’Av occurs on Sunday, the final meal eaten before the beginning of the fast is the seudah shelishit, the third meal of Shabbat.
Clearly, one’s liability for guarding the lost ring depends on the interpretation of the Talmudic dictum of osek bemitzvah.
According to Rav Moshe Feinstein, the First Period commences on the morning of the Seventeenth of Tammuz rather than the night following the Sixteenth of Tammuz.
All persons accused of murder were confined to the cities of refuge during their trial in the Sanhedrin.
When an illegal act incurs corporal punishment or lashes (malkot) and monetary liability, the rule of kam lei also applies.
Are all dogs inherently vicious? Is there such a thing as a tame dog?
What is the nature of chetzi nezek? Is it compensation or is it a fine?
In the case of a loan, witnesses are not required to make the loan transaction legally effective. The loan can be legally effective without them.
The parents, by straining the tolerance of their children to the breaking point, pushed them to the brink of disrespect.
When performing the duties of kibbud av va'aim in front of one’s parents, one should do so with a smile, not begrudgingly.
The first and perhaps broadest permitted category is known as “Tzorach HaMoed,” meaning work that enhances the joy of Chol HaMoed.
According to the Shach, the prohibition against erka’ot akum does not apply when Jewish litigants agree to litigate in front of a named non-Jewish judge.
The father does not need to worry about his daughters when they marry because the family bank of the husband’s family unit will support them.
If the general rule is hamotzi machavero alav harayah, why do we not apply it to the $50,000 the defendant denies?
The philosophical explanation may be that the Torah itself sometimes tells us which mitzvah is more important in God’s eyes.
“But what do you want from me?” argues Shlomo One. “I acted responsibly. I gave the Porsche to a shomer sachar who has an even greater duty of care toward you than I do.”
One Shabbat afternoon, Mr. Cohen, who was perfectly healthy and sipping tea at the time, turned to his son Jack and said, “You know that I love your sister, Jill, as much as I love you. So when I die, I would like her to have half of my estate together with you.” Later, when […]
A healthy person cannot effectively say, “When I die, you will get my property.”
If the husband cannot find an agent who agrees to travel with the Get to where the wife resides, the husband may appoint an agent who resides where the wife lives.
While so doing the husband says, “This is your Get, please accept it, you are divorced from me as of this moment and you are free to marry another man.”
Although the Torah requires the Get to be delivered in front of two witnesses, the Torah, according to the Rambam, does not require the witnesses to sign the Get.
The Talmud tells us that a lamp is lit over the head of each unborn child in its mother’s womb, enabling it to perceive all the ways of God throughout the world.
When a person who has given in to his or her animal instincts wishes to bring a sacrifice to atone for such conduct, the sacrifice should be as basic and unadorned as the instincts to which he or she gave in.
Today, in the absence of the Temple, our prayers are a substitute for the korbanot.
As a child, I always wanted to know what my father’s chin looked like. But I never got to see it. From the time I was born until the time he passed away 28 years later, the Dayan’s chin was always covered with a beard. The Torah forbids a man to destroy the corners of […]
The lulav also symbolizes the scepter of victory with which we emerge after vanquishing the Yom Kippur prosecutor.
The precision required and the time constraints imposed make the High Priest’s task almost humanly impossible.
On the night immediately following the 29th day of Elul and on 30th day of Elul itself, people hedged their bets.
Today, few people fast during the Days of Selichot, but the custom is to rise early to recite Selichot.
When Moses ascended the mountain that first, fateful day of Elul, the shofar was sounded daily in the Camp of Israel, heralding his expected return.
On Shabbat during the nine days, one may don freshly laundered clothes, eat meat and drink wine, including Havdalah wine.
The combination of the severity of the punishment and the ease with which the prohibition may be forgotten require that the smallest amount of chametz – chametz bemashehu – be prohibited.
If the sick person is thrust into a situation where he is compelled to face his sickness head on, we who are not yet sick can encourage him by facing it with him.
Less clear, however, is whether the concept applies to the area of civil law such as the law of transfer of property.
Conversely, no part of the Land within the boundaries delineated in Numbers 34 may be relinquished for any purpose whatsoever.
Although it is true that the Final Redemption will be accelerated when all Jews repent and accept the rule of Torah, there is also another scenario for the Final Redemption.
Should just a few communities settle the Land of Israel? Should there be a mass emigration of all Jews worldwide to Israel?
Why did so many of our great sages from the Rambam to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein live outside Israel?
God and the divine origin of His Torah are facts even though we do not fully comprehend them.
In order to be free of the negative consequences of violating a shvu’ah or a neder, the shvu’ah or neder themselves must be annulled.
The omer sacrifice of loose barley flour was more fitting for animal consumption than human consumption and symbolizes the depths to which the Jewish slaves had sunk.
In most communities the rabbi will perform the eruv ceremony on Erev Yom Tov for all community members.
Are you kidding? You know the non‑Jew is not going to consume your chametz. He is not really paying you for it; neither is he taking possession of it.
First, the punishment for eating chametz on Pesach is karet, premature death at the Hand of God.
This process, which is the most powerful form of kashering, is known as libun.
Hapeh is based on the fact that the person who qualifies the statement is the sole source of the unqualified statement and the court has therefore no choice but to believe her.
Moreover, even if the perpetrator of the capital offense is never actually executed, such as when the fatal act was unintentional, Kam Lei applies and the judge cannot award damages.
One of the purposes of the ketubah money is to make it difficult for a husband to capriciously divorce his wife.
A more difficult situation arises when there is no evidence placing the missing husband at the site of the death.
The court cannot solely rely on death certificates issued by non-Jewish institutions without conducting its own investigation into the facts of the case.
August 21, 2026 
