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- P'ninat Mishpat
The mishna (Sanhedrin 37a) says that beit din warns the witnesses regarding capital cases: "Perhaps you are relating based on assumption or rumor, or you heard testimony, one witness from another or from a reliable person." The gemara (ibid. 37b) says that the inadmissibility of an account coming from someone else applies to monetary law as well. The exception to this rule is when the first testimony was related to a beit din, in which case, the dayanim or others present in court may repeat the information in front of a different beit din. According to many authorities, this is only when the first beit din determined that the testimony was accurate. Another exception is that witnesses can testify about what they saw in a valid document, which is of value if the document was subsequently erased or destroyed [regarding written testimony, in general, see next week].
Based on this, when a witness is in a distant location, beit din can send three dayanim to the witness to hear his testimony, and they can later testify on that which they heard from him. According to almost all opinions, there must be three people accepting the testimony; one representative of the court is insufficient. Therefore, a simple notarized statement does not have a special halachic standing.
Regarding hearing testimony through a translator, the mishna (Makkot 6b) says that it is not valid. However, the gemara says that if the dayan understands the language reasonably and needs a translator only to communicate his questions to the witness, it is permitted to do so. The Radvaz says that the disqualification of hearing through a translator is only rabbinic, and therefore if there is no dayan available who understands the witness, a translator may be used. This, though, is still talking about a case where the witness speaks and the translator translates in front of beit din. If the translator alone comes to court to relay testimony, that is actually a case of one testifying in the name of another, which, we saw, is invalid.
P'ninat Mishpat (835)
Various Rabbis
109 - Culpability for Bad Financial Advice
110 - Laws of Witnesses
111 - Laws of Witnesses
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P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: How Many Dayanim?
based on ruling 84139-1 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: A Contractor’s Leaving the Job in the Middle – part II
based on ruling 84013 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: A Seller with Questionable Rights to the Property – part II
based on ruling 84062 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
