Who gets to pick up the Torah for "Hagbah"?

Hi,

"Hagbah" is the popular name for the practice of picking up the Torah and displaying it all.

This is considered a great honor, so much so that talmudically it was considered the highest honor of all the opportunities associated with the Torah reading. However, one should not accept the honor of Hagbah if he is weak, for one is supposed to hold the Torah aloft and display it to all in shul for a long enough time that they can really see (without necessarily reading) the text of the Torah.

(Mishneh Berurah 147:7)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

New Topic: Wrapping up the Torah Scroll

Hello,

The lending topic was getting a little dry, so here's a change of pace: G'lilah, the practice of lifting and then wrapping the Torah after [or, in some communities, before] the Torah reading.

One may not touch the Torah parchment itself; one must use an intermediate material, to show respect for the scroll's contents.

(Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 147:1; Mishneh Berurah 147:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collecting from a third party

Hi,

If a borrower gives all of his assets away to a third party, the creditor may claim his debt from that gift. However, the creditor does not have the right to collect from any profit made by the third party from those assets which were given to him.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 99:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Trusting court documents

Hi,

We have already said that there is no statute of limitations on collecting a loan (aside from the shemitah nullification of debts).

However, if a creditor produces an old document, the judge is required to investigate why it had not been collected until now, and to double-check its veracity, in order to ensure that there is no trickery afoot.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 98:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Claiming a loan was forgiven

Hi,


If a creditor brings a debtor to court, and the debtor acknowledges the debt and his own non-payment but claims that the creditor had forgiven the loan, he is still required to pay. The only way he can avoid payment is if he has a witnessed document certifying that the loan had been forgiven.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 98:1; Sefer Meirat Einayim 98:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Statute of limitations on a debt

Hi,

There is no statute of limitations on a debt; even if many years have passed without an attempt at collection, so long as the bill of debt is valid and so long as a shemitah [Sabbatical] year has not passed since the debt came due [which would have automatically nullified it], the debt may be claimed when the creditor produces his legal document in a Jewish court.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 98:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collecting from the family of a borrower

Hi,

A creditor is not able to claim property of a borrower's wife or children (with a few exceptional property items), even if the property was only recently purchased for them and never even used.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:25-26)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collecting on a loan by force

Hi,

We have seen that Jewish law severly limits what a creditor may do, in terms of taking collateral.

However: If a debtor defaults, a Jewish court is able to confiscate his property, hold it for thirty days, and then - if the borrower still has not paid - sell it for payment to the creditor.

This ability of the court is limited to confiscating assets which are not needed by the borrower for his day-to-day life.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:17)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Returning collateral as needed

Hi,

An officer of the court may take collateral from a debtor who has defaulted on his debt, so long as he does not take life-essential items. However, the items he does take must be returned as needed to the debtor.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:17)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Forcing a borrower to seek employment

Hi,

If a borrower defaults on a debt, the Jewish court cannot force him to seek employment in order to be able to pay off the debt. The possibility of non-payment is an accepted risk of lending money.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:15; Sefer Meirat Einayim to Choshen Mishpat 97:29)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Taking collateral from a widow or divorced woman

Hi,

One may not take collateral from a widow, as noted in the Torah (Devarim 24:17).

There is some debate as to whether this is because of her historically unprotected socioeconomic status, or because of the emotional pain she has endured. According to the former view, the law of not taking collateral extends to taking collateral from a divorced woman as well.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:14; Sefer Meirat Einayim to Choshen Mishpat 97:22; Shach to Choshen Mishpat 97:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Permitted forms of collateral

Hi,

The Torah says (Devarim 24:6) that one may not take a millstone as collateral, for this is used to prepare basic food needs for the borrower. From this we generalize that one may not take implements which the borrower needs to prepare his daily food.

However, if the borrower offers these items of his own volition, the lender is permitted to accept them as collateral.

(Sefer Meirat Einayim to Choshen Mishpat, 97:10)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collateral

Hi,

The holding of a collateral/security may be arranged at the time of a loan, but thereafter the lender may not demand to be given a security.

If, after the loan is originated, the creditor wishes to have a security, he must work through a court. The court is empowered to take such a security even against the will of the borrower.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Limiting one's lending

Hello,

Although we have said that lending money is a mitzvah, one may choose not to lend money for a cause which he considers unnecessary.

(Sefer Meirat Einayim to Choshen Mishpat, 97:5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Enabling

Hi,

One should not lend money to a person who is known to squander loans and not pay back; this only enables the borrower in his sin, and leads the lender to violate prohibitions against inappropriate pressuring of a borrower.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:4)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

A borrower's responsibility to re-pay

Hello,

We have seen that we are obligated to extend loans. However, the borrower is also obligated to re-pay. It is prohibited for a borrower to pretend that he is unable to re-pay, even if his intent only to delay repayment for a single day.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:3)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collecting on a loan

Hi,

One may not demand collection from a debtor if the debtor has no means of paying the debt; one may not even pass in front of him (to remind him of the debt), if there is no means of re-payment.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The mitzvah of lending money

Hi,

Today we begin a new topic: lending money.

We are biblically instructed to lend money to people in need of loans, whether those people are destitute or not.

Loans are viewed, from a Torah perspective, as the highest form of tzedakah, because this is a form of aid which enables the recipient to build wealth with dignity.

[Note that because the law prohibits accepting interest payments on loans, a loan is truly an act of charity.]

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 97:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The Post-Shavuot Holiday

Hi,

On each of the three regalim - the holidays on which we are instructed to travel to Yerushalayim - those who travelled to Yerushalayim brought special korbanot [offerings] in honor of the occasion.

For Pesach and Succot, which have week-long celebrations, those korbanot were brought during that week. Shavuot only has one biblical day of celebration - but the korbanot could still be brought for the entire week.

To mark this, the six days after Shavuot are considered a quasi-holiday. In many synagogues, the Tachanun prayer is not recited.

(Mishneh Berurah 131:36)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Dairy on Shavuot - Part IV

Hi,

We have mentioned that many people eat dairy on Shavuot, and given a few explanations for the practice.

One more reason for eating dairy is that the Torah is compared, in Songs of Songs, to honey and milk. For this reason many people eat honey, as well as dairy, on Shavuot.

(Mishneh Berurah 494:13)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Dairy on Shavuot, Part III

Hi,

Here is a third reason for eating dairy on Shavuot:

Meat is generally expensive, and is considered food of the wealthy; people who are humble and of low social status have historically eaten less expensive, dairy foods. Since Torah is given specifically to those who are humble, we show humility by eating dairy on Shavuot.

(cited in Taamei haMinhagim)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Shavuot - Dairy, Part II

Hi,

Yesterday I presented one reason for eating dairy foods on Shavuot.

Another reason is that the Jews returned to their tents from receiving the Torah and did not have time to prepare a meat meal, because they couldn't use food that had been cooked in their pre-Torah vessels and they would therefore have needed to prepare everything from scratch, with new implements.

Therefore, they took the easier route and prepared dairy. (Presumably this is easier because it can be prepared without heating anything up.)

(Mishneh Berurah 494:12)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Shavuot - Eating Dairy

Hello,

Some people have a practice of eating dairy foods with at least one meal on Shavuot.

One explanation for this practice is that in this way we end up eating a dairy meal and a meat meal, and so we eat from at least two separate loaves of bread - paralleling the two loaves which are brought as an offering in the Beit haMikdash on Shavuot.

(Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 494:3)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The Greening of the Synagogue

Hi,

Some communities spread grasses on the floors of their homes and synagogues on Shavuot, to commemorate the greenness of Mount Sinai when the Torah was given, and to recreate the joy of the Revelation at Sinai.

Some also place trees in homes and synagogues for Shavuot, to mark the Talmudic statement that we are judged for the year's fruit on Shavuot.

The Vilna Gaon annulled this latter practice, because other religions set up trees in honor of their holidays, and we are biblically prohibited from appearing to borrow their practices. This prohibition is called chukot akum. (We would not annul a biblically mandated religious practice for this reason, but a custom could be annulled for this purpose.)

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 494:3; Mishneh Berurah 494:10)

Have a great day,
Mordechai