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Shabbat Parashat Mishpatim 5778

Mishpatim | 25 Shevat 5778 | 10/02/2018

Parashat Hashavua: The Halachic Status of a Corporation

As we customarily do on Parashat Mishpatim, we will discuss an element of our approach to the challenges of jurisprudence at the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit rabbinical courts. This time: what is the halachic status of a corporation, and how do our batei din handle the matter?

Ask the Rabbi: Leaving Money for Tzedaka in a Will

How much could or should one leave in a will for tzedaka before dividing the rest among the children?

Ein Ayah: Using the Stronger Power Correctly

When one puts on his shoes, he puts on the right shoe first and then the left shoe. When one takes off his shoes, he takes off the left shoe first and then the right shoe.

P'ninat Mishpat: Responsibilty of a Mefakeiach for Contractors’ Flaws – part II

The plaintiff (=pl) was doing major renovations and hired the defendant (=def) as a mefakeiach (private building inspector) for 30,000 shekels. Pl then signed a contract with two Palestinian contractors for 420,000 shekels. Def, who had been consulted regarding the choice of the contractors, also signed on that contract, although he was not referred to in it. Pl discovered several flaws in the contractors’ work and fired them and def before the work was completed, after the latter had received 20,000 shekels. Pl is suing def for 544,242 shekels for the flaws, claiming that def is responsible for them for a few reasons: def was, in effect, the general contractor; def recommended hiring the contractors without seeing their past work; after starting, def took on another job and stopped coming enough; specific mistakes were made that def should have caught. Def denies being the general contractor, saying he was no more than a mefakeiach. He suggested hiring the contractors because they were much cheaper than other options, and while he spoke with them and found them apparently professionally qualified, it was pl’s informed decision. A mefakeiach does not have to visit every day, and after taking a part-time job, he was still present enough. Most of the flaws that he did not catch were trivial, and the bigger flaws would have been fixed by the contractors for free had they not been fired.

Mishpatim 5778
Microsoft Word Document

Mishpatim 5778

We daven for a complete and speedy refuah for:

Rivka Reena bat Gruna Natna

David Chaim ben Rassa

Lillian bat Fortune

Yafa bat Rachel Yente

Eliezer Yosef ben Chana Liba

Yehoshafat Yecheskel ben Milka

Ro'i Moshe Elchanan ben Gina Devra

Together with all cholei Yisrael

Hemdat Yamim is dedicated

to the memory of:

those who fell in wars

for our homeland

Eretz Hemdah's beloved friends

and Members of

Eretz Hemdah's Amutah

Rav Shlomo Merzel z”l
Iyar 10

Rav Reuven Aberman z"l

Tishrei 9 5776

Mr. Shmuel Shemesh z"l
Sivan 17 5774

R' Eliyahu Carmel z"l

Rav Carmel's father

Iyar 8 5776

Mrs. Sara Wengrowsky

bat R’ Moshe Zev a”h.

Tamuz 10 5774

Rav Asher Wasserteil z"l

Kislev 9 5769

R' Meir ben

Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld z"l

R ' Yaakov ben Abraham & Aisha

and

Chana bat Yaish & Simcha

Sebbag, z"l

Rav Yisrael Rozen z"l
Cheshvan 13, 5778

Rav Benzion Grossman z"l
Tamuz 23 5777

Hemdat Yamim
is endowed by Les & Ethel Sutker
of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and
Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).