Ask the Rabbi - 337
- The Merchant of Vegas
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The Merchant of Vegas
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Lee Vyner wrote:
Dear Rabbi,
The Talmud says that someone who earns their salary from gambling is invalid as a witness in a jewish court because the person who lost doesn't really pay with a full heart. Therefore, the money that he wins is considered theft. If so, what about the stock market? People literally gamble as to the price of a particular commodity or stock, and the person who has a holding of this particular item certainly does not want the price to deteriorate. So is someone who gambles on the stock market invalid as a witness? Lots of love, Lee Mandy and Laivy Avraham (the cutest baby in the world, thank G-d)
Dear Lee and family,
Stocks are a legitimate investment. Buying stocks is essentially no different than buying diamonds, land, or wheat. True, the stock market has an element of risk, but don't confuse 'lost wages' with 'Las Vegas.' Do you know of any business which involves no element of risk? If so, do you know their phone'number?
Gambling, on the other hand, is a game where each person hopes to guess the right number on the dice, or pick the right horse. Gamblers are invalid as witnesses in a Jewish court.
The Sages of the Talmud differ as to why gamblers are invalid. According to one opinion, someone who wins a bet is like a thief, because he collects prize money that he didn't `earn' and to which he has no true legal claim.
According to another opinion, only a professional gamester -- who has no other source of income - is invalid as a witness. His integrity is suspect, because he spends his day in pursuits which contribute nothing to society. According to this opinion, someone who gambles only part-time can be a valid witness, provided he's involved in some productive activity.
The following story is told about the Chafetz Chaim: A man once asked the Chafetz Chaim to bless him that he should win the lottery, but the Chafetz Chaim refused. "But you give blessings to people who gamble on stocks, why not when they gamble on lotteries?" the man asked. The Chafetz Chaim answered that he gives blessings to stock investors because if the stock goes up, no one loses money. But blessing one lottery ticket is a 'curse' upon the other lottery tickets.
Sources:
Talmud Sanhedrin 24b
Code of Jewish Law, Choshen Mishpat 34:16
Story thanks to Will Shulman
OhrnetinaMy daughter moved to Argentina and they love Ohr Somayach's Torah publications in Spanish called Judaismo. Is it possible to continue to receive them in the future?
Mucho gracias, I mean thanks so much,
AlbertThanks for writing, Albert, but due to financial cutbacks (global recession? I'm certain she will unfortunately understand that in Argentina) we are not producing new Spanish editions. However, we have seven years worth of archived Torah publications in Spanish on our Web Site Ohr.edu that we hope that she will find helpful and inspiring - Ed.
Re: Where Have All the Vowels Gone? (Ohrnet Vaera)Your explanations of the lack of vowels in Hebrew were most interesting.
For an additional approach, I like the outlook presented by the fact that the Hebrew word for vowel is tnuah, meaning movement. So, very much in line with your explanation of allowing multiple meanings, it can be explained that the consonants of the words in the Torah represent the firm points of holiness that each one of us must strive to attain. But the path that we take to get there is for each of us to find our own way within the guidelines of Torah.
Refael Hileman
Re: This Too Shall Pass (Ohrnet Bo)I've read a similar story when I was 10-year-old-boy. It was a Turkmenish collection of folk-tales about Mirali - the wise man and advisor of a Muslim king. It seems to me these tales are accepted as their own by all people of Turkish origin throughout Asia - I understood it communicating with guys from Azherbaydzhan, Bashkiria, Tataria, Uzbekistan when I served in the Soviet Army. This again proves that Judaism traditions are the basis of world-wide culture and civilization though a lot of people don't even suspect it. Thank you for your e-mailing and Shalom, my moods rocketed with joy.
YURI KLIMENKO IN SEVERODONETSK, UKRAINEI, too, have heard the story told by Cherie Fox and have never been able to find the source. However, note the following: "It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" This is from an Abraham Lincoln address in Milwaukee, WI, September 30, 1859
MOSHE POUPKO, JERUSALEM
Thank you Yuri Klimenko for sharing your experiences and thoughts with us. Also, thank you Moshe Poupko for the apparent "coincidence". Perhaps President Lincoln's source was in fact the Ben Ish Hai, the sage Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad (1832-1904), as a reader presented as the source for the story last week in Ohrnet Beshalach! - Ed.
Written by various Rabbis at Ohr Somayach Institutions / Tanenbaum College, Jerusalem, Israel.
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Binyamin Rosenstock
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