Rabbi Yair Bacharach (1639-1702), one of the most important German halakhic decisions of the premodern era and author of the responsa, Chavot Yair, was a student of Rabbi Mendel Bass, (who was himself the student of Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, the Ba”Ch). The Chavot Yair was considered a leading halakhic authority of his time and was the rabbi of the German towns Koblenz, Mainz, and Worms respectively. In addition to his halakhic expertise, he was also an authority in science, history, music, and poetry and actually authored a 46 volume encyclopedia that has yet to be published.
In this teshuva we see the Chavot Yair in his role as a community rabbi addressing wild behavior that took place amongst his students on Purim. After dining (and drinking) together, each student contributed a silver coin (one Reichsthaler) to participate in a raffle for a silver cup. The first drawing was discounted because it was found that the lots were not set up properly. In the second drawing, it was discovered that one of the contributors’ names had been excluded from the raffle, but the winner made a deal with the excluded party to pay them four Reichsthalers in exchange for not objecting to the outcome. Other members of the group, however, disagreed and demanded a third drawing.
The question addressed by the Chavot Yair is whether the flawed second drawing is legitimate given the agreement made by the winner with the excluded party.
In the end, he rules that the second drawing is invalid based on both Talmudic precedents and also a theological claim. He argues that games of chance are a tiny moment when God directly affects the outcome of an event. The winner of a lottery such as this is not chosen by chance but rather by the Divine will, but only as long as the game is played by the proper rules. If the rules are broken, he explains, God will not intervene for God does not play with rigged dice.
Though some rabbis might see games of chance such as this as frivolous and possibly dishonest, the Chavot Yair saw it as a way for these students to invite God’s presence in a concrete way to their Purim seudah. This Purim, let’s all find ways to bring the divine into our homes through music, food and even possibly drinking and games of chance. And at the same time, we must remember that if the rules are not kept, if some control is not maintained, God will not be part of it.
שו”ת חוות יאיר סימן סאבחבורה לומדים אצלי ומקשיבים לקולי סעדו יחד י”ב ב”ב בטוב לבם ביין בימי פורים הטילו גורל על כוס כסף גדול מוזהב ונתן כל אחד א’ ר”ט וזה מעשה הגורל מביאי’ שתי קלפי או שני כלים ומטילים י”ב פתקים כתוב על כל אחד שם אחד מהם לקלפי אחת ומטילים לקלפי שניה ג”כ י”ב פתקים על אחד מהם כתוב מז”ט וי”א ישארו חלקים ותינוק או תינוקת לוקחת א’ מכלי זה וא’ מכלי זה ועם מי שיצא מז”ט זכה בכוס. והנה אירע בגורל הנ”ל שיצא מז”ט בהעלאה שניה והיה פלא בעיני הרואים שעלה פתק המז”ט מהר. ואחד מהם בדק וראה כי היו רק פתקים חלקים יוד והיה ראוי להיות י”א ועל שנים היה כתוב מז”ט וביקש זה שזכה בו לומר אחר שאיך שנעשו שני טעותים אלו בזדון או בשגגה או דרך היתול ושחוק אין בו שום גרעון או יפוי כח לאחד יותר מלחבריו ואם מזלו גרם לו ה”ה אם היה כנכון וראוי עמדה לו שעה. ואמרתי בפשיטות שבטלה הגורל דק”ל כרב דאמר בטלה המחלוקת בבא להם אח ממה”י בפרק בית כור דף ק”ו ע”ב והוא בטור ח”מ ובש”ע סי’ קע”ה. וחזרו להטיל פתקים חדשים באופן הנ”ל לשני כלים וזכה מהם אחד בהעלאה ששית ואחד מן הנשארים בקלפי לפי תומו פתח פתקים הכרוכים הנשארים ומתוך כך ראה שחסר שם א’ מנותני מעות שלא נזרקו לתוך הקלפי רק י”א פתקי ב”ב. ואמרו בני חבורה לבטל גם פייס זה וזה שזכה טען נגדם דאין טעם לתלונתם לקלקל הגורל אדרבה ע”י גרעון שם אחד מהם היו קרובים לשכר וע”ד זה שהיה חסר ביקש הזוכה לפשר וליתן לו ד’ ר”ט והיה מרוצה. ובאמת לפום ריהטא היה הדבר מעויין אצלי בלי הכרעה אבל אחר עיון מעט זמן כמן ימא לטיגנא פסקתי שג”כ בטלה המחלוקת שהרי חזינא גבי שני אחין שחלקו ואח”כ בא להם אח ממה”י שאפילו היו להם ג’ שדות שוות בערך ונטל אחד מהם שדה ומחצה ואחר שבא להם אח ניסו וכתבו ג’ פתקים ורשמו עליהם ג’ שדות ולקח האח הנכרי פתק אחד ועלה בידו שדה שחלקו ונתרצה אח השלישי בו מ”מ יכול כל אחד משני האחים לבטל גורל הראשון לגמרי והם דברי ר”י בתוס’ שם (עם כי לא ידעתי פי’ מלת מקמצין לדעת ר”י) וכ”פ בש”ע שם אע”פ שאין טעם ושום סברא ומקום לערער שום אחד מהם מצד השכל מ”מ גורל הנעשה שלא כהוגן בטל מכ”ש אם הטעות במעשה הגורל בעצמו … כי ראינו מן התורה מן הנביאים ומן הכתובים שסמכו על הגורל באשר נעשה בלי מחשבות אדם ופעולת אנוש מצד התחכמות אך בגורל תחלק הארץ וכן סמכו על הגורל במיתת עכן ויונתן לולי שפדאוהו העם לא מצד הודאתו ונאמר בחיק יוטל הגורל ומה’ כל משפטו ואפילו בא”ה היה מקובל זה כמו גבי יונה והמן הרשע לפשטי’ דקרא … מפני שקרוב הדבר שאם הגורל כהוגן ידבק בו השגחה עליונה כמ”ש הבה תמים מש”כ אם הגורל מקולקל אין מבוא לומר שמי שזכה מאת ה’ היתה זאת הן שהקלקול ע”י תחבולת אנוש או בשגגה עכ”פ הגורל מקולקל ומצי כל חד למימר אלו נעשה הגורל כהוגן היה קיימא לי שעתי ע”פ מזלי או ע”פ תפילתי שיתן לי הצלחה בכל עסקיי יותר ממ”ש בש”ס דב”מ ק”ו ע”א דמצי מחכיר למימר הוי מתקיים בי ותגזור אומר ויקם לך וכמ”ש אתה תומיך גורלי ואע”פ שמתוס’ שם סוף העמוד יש קצת סתירה לזה דלא אמרינן כך על תפילה כללית מ”מ גורל שאני דבלה”נ מסוגל להשגחה אם נעשה כהוגן וגדולה מזה נ”ל אם הערים אדם והטיל ב’ פתקים ששמו כתוב עליו לקלפי וזכה אחר בפתק מז”ט וגילה זה החוטא אח”כ ובדקו ומצאו כך. מ”מ יכולי’ האחרים לבטל הגורל ואפילו הוא עצמו והנלפענ”ד כתבתי. נאם יאיר חיים בכרך | Amongst the group who learns from me and listens to my voice, twelve community members ate together on Purim. And when their hearts were glad with wine, they all contributed one Reichsthaler (silver coin) and raffled off a large, gilded, silver cup in the following way. They brought two boxes and they put in one of them 12 slips with the names of every one written on them. And in the second box they also put twelve slips. One had “Mazel Tov” written on it and the eleven others were blank. And a child would draw one slip from each box and whoever’s name came out together with the “Mazel Tov” slip, that person won the cup. During this raffle, the “Mazel Tov” slip came out in the second drawing, and the spectators were suspicious that it was drawn so quickly. One of them checked and saw that there were only ten blank slips where there should have been eleven. And there were two “Mazel Tov” slips! The winner wanted to say that whether these mistakes were done intentionally or accidentally or for a joke, they did not advantage any of those participating more than the other. And if he was lucky this time, then even if the drawing had been totally proper, he would have won anyway. And I ruled straightforwardly that the raffle is invalid… And they went back and drew new slips and one of them won on the sixth drawing. But one of the others, without any specific agenda, opened the slips and they saw that the name of one of the people who contributed was absent. And there were only eleven names in the box! And the members of the group said that the second drawing should be voided as well. But the one who had won argued against this that there was no need for their complaints to ruin the raffle. On the contrary, the fact that there was one less name actually raised their chances to win. And regarding the one whose name was missing, the winner wanted to compromise and give them four Reichsthalers and the person was satisfied. In fact, I was confused initially about the matter and was not able to rule. But after a little consideration, I ruled that this conclusion was also invalid. For regarding two brothers who divided three fields of approximately equal value (that they inherited from their father), and each of them took a field and a half, and then another brother came from overseas, we know that even if they wrote each field on a slip of paper and the newly arrived brother drew out the slip that indicated the field that had been divided in half, and he was satisfied with it, despite this, any one of the other two brothers can void the original division (i.e. because the original division was not done in the presence of the third brother, either of the remaining brothers can demand that the original division be cancelled and that each remaining brother draw again now to determine what field they will get). This is the position of the Tosafot and this is the interpretation of the Shulkhan Arukh, even if there is no intellectual reason or logic to challenge the original division. In any case, a drawing of lots that was done improperly is invalid. And this is all the more so true if there was a mistake in the actual assembly of the lots… For we see in the Torah, in the Prophets and in the Writings that they relied on the lottery, when done without the interference of human intellect. For the Land of Israel was divided by lots, and they relied on lots in order to identify Achan (Joshua 7) and Jonathan (1 Samuel 14)… And it says “Lots are cast into the lap; The decision depends on the Lord.”(Proverbs 16:33). And even amongst the non-Jews, this was accepted as we see in the story of Jonah (1:7) and the wicked Haman according to the simple meaning of the text… For when the lots are drawn properly, it is as if they are invested with the divine imprimatur… However, if the raffle was done improperly, one cannot say that the winner was chosen by God. For when there is impropriety whether by human design or by accident, the drawing is flawed and anyone can say that if it had been done properly, “I would have won because it would have been my lucky time, or I would have won because my prayers would have been answered.”… And even though Tosafot contradict this and say that we don’t assume this by prayer generally (that it would be answered), a lottery is different because, if done properly it is a vehicle for divine providence. |
שו”ת
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Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff (YCT ’14) is a Rebbe and Director of Community Learning at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. After spending several years in Israel doing graduate coursework in Hebrew University's Talmud Department and learning in various batei midrash in Jerusalem, he then trained at YCT. Rabbi Haggai graduated from YCT in 2014, and joined the faculty immediately thereafter. Rabbi Resnikoff headed up the Torat Chovevei Community Learning Project for four years and, as an outgrowth of that, has spearheaded YCT's groundbreaking effort to raise the priority level of the climate crisis in the Orthodox and larger Jewish community.
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