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Fellow Weekly - Issue 90
WHAT'S THE LAW ™
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Welcome to Fellow Weekly's
WHAT'S THE LAW?™
Encouraging intelligent and entertaining debate at your Shabbat table.
Fellow Weekly raises issues of business law and ethics through lively emails by featuring your real-life scenarios answered by our leading authorities and professionals. |
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CASE 190: The Baffled Babysitter XI: Swallowed Shoelace!
Scrubbing, dusting, washing, and vacuuming. Stop drop roll! With the upbeat festive music playing in the background, the Green household joyfully and systematically cleansed and readied their home for the upcoming Passover holiday. It appeared as though the children had rehearsed their roles for years. And as for Mom...her sheer excitement was infectious. "Passover cleaning avails us quality family bonding time, as well as abilities to set small and big goals and feel accomplished," Mom was oft to say.
Mrs. Green even borrowed an additional vacuum cleaner, a Eureka SmartVac 4870MZ from her next neighbor, Shira Stein and asked Bracha the babysitter to vacuum the den. Bracha picked up the toys in sight and began her chore.
Five minutes later, Leah heard an awful sound....and then the machine suddenly stopped. Vacuuming beneath the bookcases, the machine had swallowed a shoelace, three marbles and some broken shards of glass. A repair was due.
Who swallows the repair cost? Bracha , Mrs. Green or Mrs. Stein?
What is the law?
Please email us with your comments and answers at weekly@projectfellow.org.
Read next week's issue for the answer!
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LAST WEEK'S CASE
CASE 189: Drink or Sink?
Ayalon Ya'ari from Ramat Beit Shemesh, studied medicine in Haifa's Technion; the Israel Institute for Technology . Beginning to focus on Nuclear Medicine therapies, in 2008, Ayalon transferred as an exchange student to Johns Hopkins school of Medicine.
With a preference to off-campus living, Ayalon rented a comfortable basement apartment from the Fein family. Living on the quiet country-like tree-lined Green Meadow Parkway in Baltimore County, the Fein's warmly adopted Ayalon as though he was a member of their own family. Ayalon understandably endeared the Fein's as well; holding a special penchant in his heart for seventeen year old David Fein, a cute, intelligent, and highly responsible young kid.
Intending to spend Passover back home on Ramat Beit Shemesh's Nahal Dolev Street, Ayalon left his black 2007 Acura CL for David to use during the holiday break. With Passover beginning on Saturday night, Ayalon left for Ben Gurion Airport early Wednesday Morning.
Running some last minute errands for his Mom early Friday afternoon, young David flipped open the trunk and was shocked at his find.
Three full bottles of Gold Signature Chivas Regal 18! David looked at his watch. Shabbat had already set in Israel. " Jewish law forbids ownership of whiskey during Passover," There's no contacting Ayalon before Passover sets in either..." David thought to himself.
What must David do? What should David do?
What is the law?
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The Answer
We present you here with a concise ruling. For a more intricate elucidation, please see the detailed explanation below.
David should sell the whiskey on Friday. If he fails to do so, he is absolved from paying Ayalon for the value of the whiskey. |
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Detailed Explanation
Drink or Sink? implicates the following ten laws.
1. The mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah requires the finder to care for the find and take measures that the article does not depreciate in the interim. The finder is called a meishiv Aveida and is liable for damages or losses to the article as a result of his/her negligence [Choshen Mishpat 267: 17].
2. If the lost item will depreciate considerably before the finder is able to return it, the finder is required to attempt to protect the owner from suffering such loss.
The finder has the option of converting the item into its present cash value and using it [Choshen Mishpat 267: 21].
3. If the finder has no use for the article, he or she must sell it and return the cash value to the rightful owner [Orach Chaim 443: 2 Mishna Berura 11].
4. While a finder is liable for losses or damages incurred due to his/her irresponsibility in safeguarding the article, the finder is absolved from paying for losses resulting from not having sold the article in a timely fashion [ibid., Sha'ar Hatziyun 16].
5. A Jew may not own whiskey or other grain derivatives from the end of the fifth Halachic hour (5/12 of daylight) of the morn before Seder night through the end of Passover [Orach Chaim 443:1].
6. A Jew may not benefit from whiskey or other grain derivatives, which were illegitimately owned by a Jew over Passover. Such products become figuratively valueless [Orach Chaim 448:3].
7. Means of ridding one's home from grain derivatives in time for the prohibited interim includes venues of destruction as well as legally selling the products [Orach Chaim 445].
8. A Jew who finds in his/her home prior to the prohibited interim, grain derivatives belonging to a fellow Jew, should sell the products once it can be reasonably assumed that the owner will not succeed in retrieving them in due time [Orach Chaim 443:2 Mishna Berura 10].
9. The finder should take the initiative to sell the products and not assume that the loser sold it on his/her own [ibid. Biur Halacha ]
10. Generally one may not issue a sale on the Shabbat [Orach Chaim 306: 6 Mishna Berura 33]. It is questionable whether one may issue such a "mitzvah sale " i.e. to remove grain derivatives from one's possessions on Shabbat [Orach Chaim 444: 4 Mishna Berura 20]. Thus, when the day before Seder Night falls out on Shabbos, grain derivatives should be sold on Friday [Orach Chaim 444:2].
Application
David found Ayalon's expensive bottles of whiskey. David assumes the responsibility to return the lost articles to Ayalon which includes protecting the article from becoming valueless under his watch. If the whiskey were to remain owned by Ayalon over Passover, the bottles would become figuratively valueless.
David must consider that Ayalon might have forgotten to include the bottles in his own sale of grain derivatives. As such, David must sell the bottles in order to spare Ayalon from a possible considerable loss. David may sell it once he can assume that Ayalon cannot retrieve the bottles in due time. With Shabbat already setting in for Ayalon in Israel, David can reasonably assume that the time is ripe to sell the bottles.
Additionally David should not sell the whiskey on Shabbat. Instead, David should sell the bottles on Friday afternoon.
If David fails to do so, he is absolved from paying Ayalon for the value of the whiskey.
Answered by: The Yesharim Research Center
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Note:
Although we aim to present the correct ruling, varying details are always important and decisively influence every individual case. Our readers are thus encouraged to present their personal cases to a competent authority and not solely rely on the information provided.
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