Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Going to a Gentile Court not a Beth Din


Going to a Gentile Court for Judgment Instead of Beth Din
By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

A Jew must adjudicate his issues with another Jew at a Torah Beth Din. Going to a gentile court is a great sin.[1] “It is forbidden to take a Din Torah dispute with another Jew to gentile judges and to their courts. (Meaning the established place for gentile officers to adjudicate.) This is true even if the gentile court adjudicates according to the laws of the Jews. And even if both Jews having the dispute decide to go to the gentile court, it is forbidden.
And whoever comes to judge before gentiles is a wicked Rosho. It is as if he has cursed and insulted and raised his hand against the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu. [2] Rav Yoshua Volk the Cohen explains that, “Because he ignores Jewish judges and goes before gentile judges, he has raised his hand against the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu of blessed memory. He thus shows that the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu and its rulings are not true, chas vishalom.”
The Vilna Gaon writes,[3] “How do we know that when two Jews have a dispute with each other, and they know that the gentile court rules as the Jewish court does, that it is forbidden to go to the gentile court? The Torah says, ‘(that when Jews have a dispute) they must bring it before a Jewish Beth Din and not gentiles. Because anyone who forsakes Jewish judges and goes before gentiles has first denied HaShem and secondly has denied the Torah, as it is said, etc.”
The Ramo adds, “And Beth Din has the capacity to put in Nidui and Cherem a person who goes to gentile court with his fellow. And even if he does not present his claims to the gentiles on the court, but merely has a gentile force his fellow to come to a Jewish Beth Din with him to be adjudicated, it is proper to strap him down and punish him.”
The teaching of the Ramo seems to contact teachings in this section of the Shulchan Aruch. The previous teaching is from 26:1, but the next piece is 26:2: “If the gentile forces are strong and the Jewish person who owes money to another Jew is stubborn and refuses to pay, and it is impossible to get the money he owes from him, the Jew who is owed the money should turn first to a Jewish Beth Din and ask them to intervene to force the other Jew to pay his debt. If the guilty Jew refuses to come to the Jewish Beth Din that summoned him, the Jew who is owed the money requests and receives permission from the Jewish Beth Din and then goes to the gentile court to have them force the other Jew to pay his debt.”
There the Ramo adds, “And the Jewish Beth Din has the right to go to the gentile court and testify that Jew A owes Jew B money so that the gentile court will force Jew A to pay his debt to Jew B.” If so, how can the Ramo in 26:1 say that a Jew who has a gentile force his debtor to come to a Jewish Beth Din that we punish him? Here we see that if the Jew cannot get his money from the other Jew he goes to Beth Din of Jews and gets permission to bring the issue to a gentile court and the Jewish court is even empowered to go to the gentile court and to testify who owes who.
But the answer is that if a Jew goes on his own and hires a goy to force his defaulter to go to a Jewish court and pay his debt, that is wrong and results in a punishment for the Jew who did it. But if the Jew goes to Beth Din and gets permission to do it, not only is this no sin, but the Beth Din itself can go and testify about this in the gentile court. Everything revolves upon whether the Jewish Beth Din permits involving the gentile Beth Din, which is permitted, but if a Jew hires a gentile to force a Jew to go to a Jewish Beth Din, that is a sin.



[1] See Choshen Mishpot 26:1.
[2] See Mieeras Ainayim commentary there #4
[3] The Medrash Tanchuma in the beginning of Mishpotim

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