The mishna in Sanhedrin 24b states that dice players are invalid witnesses, which indicates that gambling is an improper activity. There is a debate in the gemara as to why this is so. Rav Sheishet explains that there is an element of stealing when the winner collects his earnings because the loser expects to win so he departs with his money begrudgingly. Rami bar Chama explains that the gambler is not involved in “yishuvo shel olam,” in productive occupations that demand hard work.
Would occasional gambling be permitted? Rav Sheishet would forbid this activity because the winner would still be guilty of stealing from the loser, but Rami bar Chama would permit this activity because this individual is still a productive member of society since he has a job and gambles only occasionally. The Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 370:3) rules like Rav Sheishet and the Rema rules like Rami bar Chama. It would seem, then, that Sephardim who follow the Shulchan Aruch may not gamble even occasionally, but Ashkenazim who follow the Rema may do so.
However, there is room to argue that even Sephardim can buy a lottery ticket. Some poskim believe that one may buy a lottery ticket because you pay in advance and, therefore, you clearly recognize the possibility of losing. Others argue that the odds of winning a lottery are so low that no purchaser assumes he will win. Certainly, there is room to be lenient to buy a lottery ticket associated with a charity, because we can assume that people are willingly giving the money to the charity even if they don’t win.
One also must consider whether purchasing lottery tickets will be addictive and how many people who are very poor may use their meager savings to purchase many lottery tickets when there is little chance that they will win. As such, even though purchasing a lottery ticket may be permitted according to the letter of the law, it may not be proper according to the spirit of the law.
– Rabbi Jonathan Muskat is the rabbi of the Young Israel of Oceanside, a rebbe at Shulamith High School, and a pastoral health care liaison at Mount Sinai South Nassau.
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The State of New York and many other jurisdictions made a decision a number of years ago – in the spirit of “If you can’t win them, join them” – when they decided to issue a government-sponsored lottery. When I grew up there were no lotteries across America. The only option for those who “wished to make it big” was to purchase an Irish sweepstakes lottery ticket. I’m not even sure if they were legal; nevertheless in many grocery and corner newsstand candy stores they were yours for the asking.
America, being basically conservative and religious, as per its founding fathers, eschewed games of chance as such and considered those so involved as engaging in sacrilegious and contemptible behavior. However as times changed so did people’s attitudes. Moreover, governments sought to join in and enrich the state coffers via people’s weakness for games of chance.
Our sages of the Talmud (Sanhedrin 24b) are the source for this apprehension as they state that one who gambles with dice is ineligible to bear witness – such people are of such low character that we disqualify their testimony. Why? In the words of Rambam (Hilchos Gezeila v’Aveida 6:10-11) “Those that play these games of sport using various objects, each side challenging the other “winner take all,” are considered robbers since they took their fellows money even though the two sides agreed to such terms. And further, since they are engaged in worthless matters, that too is a violation, as a person is supposed to be involved in improving the settlement of the land.”
The latter is accomplished either when one is engaged in Torah study or when one is engaged in earning his decent livelihood.
Yet the Talmud (ad loc) cites R. Yehudah who says if they have another means of occupation, and this is only an occasional game, they may bear witness and give testimony.
Buying a lottery ticket, which the state claims goes to support education, is thus not such type of gambling that should disqualify one from testimony, and if it is only an occasional ticket then it should be permissible.
However, a final note of caution. The NYS Lottery always adds in small type at the end of their advertisements “If you have a gambling problem dial [this number].” Thus while they sanction it and profit from it, they still call (pardon the pun) “a spade a spade.” It’s still gambling.
– Rabbi Yaakov Klass is chairman of the Presidium of the Rabbinical Alliance of America; rav of Congregation K’hal Bnei Matisyahu in Flatbush, Brooklyn; and Torah Editor of The Jewish Press. He can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected].
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My wife and I used to say that winning a $100,000 lottery would be a real bracha if no one, and I mean no one, knew about it. If one person found out about it, it wouldn’t be worth it. Even though this was said in jest, I think it underscores a very important point, and that is that wealth and especially real riches is a bracha that come with a tremendous cost, and often that cost is not worth it.
Importantly, we still need to be able to pay one’s bills, and even to have a little extra money is a wonderful bracha. But the great American dream of making it big and being wealthier than wealthy, is fraught with dangers. Certainly, spiritual dangers, but also physical dangers in terms of lifestyle, in terms of damaging your children, in terms of really being very miserable and very unhappy.
The problem is that everyone buys into the dream, $1 and I’ll be the winner of millions of dollars. It sounds really glorious and grand but it really isn’t. Can I say it is bad hishtadlus to buy a lottery ticket? Certainly no, there is nothing wrong with it, but I just want to caution that it feeds into a false dream that if only I struck it big and got rich, life would be so wonderful, life would be so great, life would be grand.
But it just isn’t so. Eighty percent of major lottery winners are back at work within one year. Here’s an even odder study: They looked at two groups of people. One that won major lotteries and the second that became paraplegics. After one year’s time they did a quality-of-life index and a happiness index. They found that the two groups were about the same, the only difference being that the paraplegic group expressed finding more joy in their day-to-day living.
– Rabbi Ben Zion Shafier is founder of The Shmuz and author of 10 Really Dumb Mistakes That Very Smart Couples Make (available at theshmuz.com).
