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- P'ninat Mishpat
(condensed from Hemdat Mishpat, rulings of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Case: The defendant (=def), a teacher and respected member of a community, found two boys, including the plaintiff (=pl), in a heated argument. Pl threatened to hit the other boy, who told def that pl had already hit him. Def demanded that pl leave the area. After pl refused several times, def shoved him. Pl, who it turns out, had surgery on his inner ear a week earlier, sustained damage to his ear as a result of def’s rough contact and required not insubstantial medical care. Pl and his parents demand payment for direct and indirect expenses and for pain.
Ruling: The gemara (Gittin 85b) derives from the pasuk, "These are the statutes that you shall place before them" (Shemot 21:1) that only people with ordination tracing back to Moshe Rabbeinu can adjudicate. The gemara (Bava Kama 84a) says that in times and places there are no such jurists, others can judge as representatives of the (past) dayanim but only in common-type cases of financial loss. This excludes penalty payments and bodily damage that man causes to man, which is uncommon.
There are five categories of payments in bodily damages of man to man: nezek (permanent handicap), tza’ar (pain), ripuy (medical expenses), shevet (loss of work time), boshet (embarrassment). The Rambam (Sanhedrin 5:10) and Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 1:2) say that beit din can adjudicate on all but nezek and tza’ar. The Rama claims that they cannot adjudicate shevet or ripuy either, but that the minhag is to force the damager to appease the damaged and to penalize him as they deem fit. The Rama thus limits the formal settlements beit din can make but expands beit din’s ability to force an appropriate appeasement. Additionally, the gemara (ibid.) says that if the victim seizes assets of the damager, he can keep them unless beit din rules that he took too much.
The source for the ability to force an informal settlement is in the Tur (CM 1) in the name of Rav Sherira Gaon. He said that leaders saw the societal cost stemming from the inability to levy penalties, prompting a takana (communal decree) to allow beit din to excommunicate one until he agrees to appease the other side.
What happens if the two sides agree to have a matter of penalty adjudicated by beit din? The Sha’ar Mishpat (CM 1:1) says that this does not entitle beit din to rule on outright penalty payments but that it does enable judgments on matters that were deemed uncommon, such as the payments for bodily damage of one person to another.
Our beit din’s arbitration agreement, signed by the sides, enables beit din to rule based on law or compromise, including levying payments for matters on which there is only a moral obligation to pay. This certainly includes matters of physical damage done by man to man. Actually, in such cases, the damager has a full monetary obligation, just that beit din does not classically rule on such matters.
Thus, beit din can rule regarding ripuy and shevet, according to normal halachic rules, and for other payments, based on def’s signing of the arbitration agreement.
P'ninat Mishpat (829)
Various Rabbis
205 - Return of Money After Unused Services
206 - Educational Violence?
207 - Educational Violence?
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P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Late and Flawed Apartment
based on ruling 82174 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Tuition Payment after Withdrawing Student
based on ruling 85142 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Return of Down Payment Due to War – part II
based on ruling 84044 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Return of Down Payment Due to War – part I
based on ruling 84044 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
