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.
