Rambam In-Depth: If a Secular Court Takes What You Sold, Must You Refund?

A class by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah: In this halacha, responsibility follows what the seller had in mind, not only what is right or wrong.

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg has launched a new series of classes on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in response to the Rebbe’s call to learn at least one halacha in depth.

The Rebbe initiated a major effort to unite all Jews with the study of the entire encyclopedic work, Mishneh Torah, by learning three chapters a day and completing the entire work in less than a year. Alternatively, one can learn one chapter and complete the entire Mishneh Torah in close to three years. The Rebbe also gave a third option to study Maimonides’ companion work, Sefer Hamitzvos that parallel the Mishneh Torah.

In addition, the Rebbe requested that we learn one halacha in depth.

We recently began the 46nd cycle of Mishneh Torah which inspired Rabbi Greenberg to record brief classes on selected passages of the Mishneh Torah.

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is a shliach of the Rebbe in Buffalo NY and the Director of the Jewish Discovery Center, and, for over 50 years, has taught thousands of classes on all aspects of Jewish knowledge.

Rabbi Greenberg has also authored dozens of works on diverse subjects including several volumes of commentary on the Mishneh Torah.

Many of Rabbi Greenberg’s classes can be accessed on his website rabbigreenberg.com.

You sell something, and later it’s taken away from the buyer. Do you have to give the money back? The Rambam says it depends on who took it, and the reason why takes three great commentators to explain.

In halacha 3, the Rambam rules that anyone who sells land, a servant or movable property is responsible for it. If the item is taken from the buyer because of the seller (stolen goods, or a creditor of the seller who collects it), the buyer gets back everything he paid. This holds even if nobody stipulated it, and even if the shtar (the deed of sale) never mentions it: a missing guarantee clause is treated as a scribal error.

Halacha 4 adds a limit. The seller is responsible only when the item is taken by a Jewish court, a beis din shel Yisrael. If a non-Jew takes it, whether by the law of the king or through the secular courts, the seller owes nothing. But there’s a well-known halacha, dina d’malchusa dina: the law of the land is binding in Jewish law. So why should it matter which court took it?

Never Miss a Headline!

Sign up for the COLlive Daily News Roundup and never miss a story

Opt In

• I would like to receive the collive newsletter

Follow Us!