Parshas Reah: Selling your Vote

From a recent AP story: MINNEAPOLIS (AP) " A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall's presidential election up for sale on the Web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn't see the humor. University of Minnesota student Max P. Sanders, 19, was charged with a felony Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after allegedly asking for a minimum of $10 in exchange for voting for the bidder's preferred candidate. ... Sanders was charged with one count of bribery, treating and soliciting under an 1893 state law that makes it a crime to offer to buy or sell a vote. ... The scarcely used law had its heyday in the 1920s, when many people sold their votes in exchange for liquor, Assistant County Attorney Pat Diamond said. ... The charge carries up to five years' imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. What are the halachic issues raised by vote buying? The Chasam Sofer has a fascinating responsum on this topic (CM 160, cited by Pischei Teshuvah CM 8:1). A certain community (whose name he omits, presumably for the obvious reasons) had decided to utilize a certain voting procedure to choose from among four candidates for the position of Rabbi of the community. Subsequent to the implementation of the vote, rumors circulated that members of the community had received pecuniary consideration from relatives of the winner to vote for him, and there was even the discovery of an incriminating letter, purporting to be from a member of the community, which made clear reference to the scandalous arrangement. A great commotion ensued, the community split into two factions, and the Chasam Sofer attempted to act as peacemaker and settle the matter. Regarding the technical halachic question of the validity of the vote, the Chasam Sofer argues that it is absolutely certain that if the fact of the bribery can be established through the testimony of two impartial witnesses, then the vote is void. He infers this from a ruling of Rema (CM 163:1): "All communal needs, which cannot be agreed upon [by the members of the community], we confer with all the householders who pay tax, and they accept upon themselves that they will all express their views for the sake of Heaven, and they follow the majority." The Chasam Sofer argues that one who is paid to vote has not given his opinion 'for the sake of Heaven'. I have long wondered, however, as to what exactly is included in the requirement that they vote 'for the sake of Heaven'? E.g, if the community is considering the construction of a wall, and I am the local stonemason, must I attempt to sequester that fact and try to determine what I would recommend if I had no financial interest in the project? As far as I know, under American law, ordinary citizens voting in a civic election, as opposed to those elected or appointed as representatives of others and voting in that capacity, have no such obligation, and the law only forbids the direct purchase of votes. The Chasam Sofer additionally rules that if we establish through witnesses that a particular candidate had himself ordered the purchase of votes, he is thereby ineligible for any Rabbinic position until he repents. Rav Shlomoh Yehudah Tabak has another important responsum on this topic (Resp. Teshuras Shai II:56). The seven Tuvei Ha'ir of some community had reached a unanimous decision on a certain financial question within their purview, but one of them had been paid to vote the way he did, and the question therefore arose as to whether their decision was binding. Rav Tabak takes for granted that the vote of the compromised official does not count, and the thrust of his argument is to show that the entire vote is invalid even though the decision had been unanimous and the other six officials had not been tampered with. He reasons that Halachah requires the presence and participation of all members of a deliberative body even where the decision of a majority suffices. In our case, the purchased member must be considered as absent, and the vote is therefore invalid. Moreover, a corrupted member is actually even worse than an absent one, since the undue influence of the bribe may have spread to his colleagues through his persuading them of his position (see the actual responsum for the background and details of his arguments). This article has been brought to you courtesy of Bais HaVaad L'Inyonei Mishpat,and Halachaboy!

Parshas Eikev: Wearing a Gartel

HalachaSensei Joke I just made up- A karate sensei is really upset his son left the family karate business to pursue learning in Israel. The sensai calls up his son and says "Daniel Son, I just don't get you. You always take the easy way out." Daniel confused by his father's point inquires "What exactly do you mean, dad?" "Daniel" says his father "in karate it takes years to earn a black belt, however the second you walk into that yeshiva they practically give them out free." What is the purpose of the Gartel and why do some people wear it and others don't? Halachaboy has researched this topic and found three reasons brought down as to why the custom of some is wear a Gartel: 1, Tosfos brings down that there is a requirement to seperate your heart from your lower half when praying (separating, your animalistic lower side, from your spiritual upper half). 2. The pasuk in Amos (a lesser known but definitely important Navi) says "Prepare to meet your G-d, O Israel" (4:12) and thus we learn out one should have specific garments for prayer like a warrior has for battle. 3. The Bach and others right that one should dress when praying like he is standing before a king, or other important dignitary. Now a days the Bach's opinion is not fulfilled through a Gartel because no one wears Gartels as a normal form of dress. Tosfos's opinion isn't fulfilled either because we normally wear a belt (or elastic waistband) which suffices as a separation. However, based on the pasuk in Amos it would seem that one ideally should still wear a Gartel or at least have some other means of preparing himself for davening ( A davening jacket, hat, etc) and one should certainly not look down on those that do or do not wear a Gartel as there is much to rely on either way. However, I want to point out two quick stories of people that missed the point of this whole Halacha: Rav Herschel Schecter, Rosh Yeshiva at YU, is fond of repeating a story he heard from Rav Shimon Schwab. Rav Schwab was going to daven mincha one day and there was a businessman wearing a suit at the minyan. The man had forgotten his gartel, and proceeded to take off his tie and use it as a gartel. R' Schwab commented that what the man did was incorrect. Nowadays, a gartel is a minhag, it is not part of a person's dress. However, a tie is an integral part of a person's dress (for businessman) and for many people if they are not wearing a tie they are not fully dressed. Therefore, the man would have been better off leaving the tie on and not davening with a gartel as the gartel is stam a minhag while the tie could be min hadin. And secondly, also told over by Rav Schecter Rav Soloveichick at one pointed stopped wearing a jacket for shacharis during the week. One of the talmidim asked him why? He explained that he started wearing R' Chaim's (the Rav's grandfather's) old tefillin, and the batim were very large so he couldn't put his arm with the tefillin on them into the sleeve. So what, ask the Talmid, The Rav replied that no one would walk around in the street or to meet an important person with their jacket on one arm and hanging off the other arm and therefore he thought that it was more kavod not to wear the jacket at all. It should be noted that some shuls require those davening to wear a jacket. However, they wear any old outer jacket. This minhag seems very difficult to justify, as the idea of wearing a jacket is based of the requirement of the Bach, that one should dress like he is going to an important meeting when davening, and while people wear suit jackets in meetings, nobody would wear a windbreaker or sweatshirt. We should all try not only to do, but to understand the reason behind our actions- so we don't miss the boat. Wax on, Wax off !

Parshas Va'eschanan: Drawing Pictures of Nature and Celestial Bodies

From the realms of activities that seem permitted but actually might get you stoned, Halachaboy presents the follow query: In this weeks Parsha the Torah commands "lest ye deal corruptly, and make you a graven image, even the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female. the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven" (Devarim 4:16-19). [ I apologize for the translation, its the only one I could find on the computer] And one perek later, in the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, even any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God" (Devarim 5: 7-8) Now let me ask you all a question- every child colors pictures of beautiful sceneraries. The glowing sun, a sprouting tree, a glistening rainbow. And as parents we ooh and ahh and praise these beautiful works of art. However, doesn't the pasuk above clearly prohibit such activity. Would we ever praise our children for eating traif, so why do we praise our children for their works of art. Knowing you, you are probably saying that the Torah only prohibits works used for Avodah Zara, however read those Pasukim again. The torah says you can't make works of art and then adds a separate prohibition of worshipping them. Thus we can deduce that even without worshipping such works, the mere creation of a work of art that resembles anything on heaven and below is forbidden. In fact, the Shulchan Aruch writes that there is a prohibition against depicting images of Avodah Zarah (even if you aren't making them or using them for such). The prohibited images include the sun, the moon and the stars! Rav Moshe Feinstein was actually asked this question when someone asked him whether young children should draw pictures of the sun in school. He said that their representations of the sun would be permissible since they are not going to be accurate. He added, however, that as children mature and develop their artistic capabilities, there could be a real problem (and so, he queries, why even get them started?). To conclude. Let the children draw, just make sure the drawings don't amount to anything good! Mural of the story (get it??)- We think we know a lot of Torah and Halacha, but we haven't even scratched the surface. So keep on studying!