Public robbery
Hello Rabbi,
A person praying in a synagogue who saves a place for a friend by simply placing an open book in that place, thus preventing the other worshippers from sitting in that place.
What do you think about this act? Did that person violate a halakhic prohibition – for example: theft, or did he simply not act morally right?
In general, it seems to me that the question is – is denying an individual from the public the right to use a public object a theft?
I would love the sources.
Thank you very much.
I have no sources and see no need for them.
The fundamental question is whether a person himself is permitted to place a siddur somewhere in order to keep it for himself. Simply put, yes, and that is how it is done (it is no different from a person who sits somewhere and when he goes to the bathroom he leaves a siddur on the spot to indicate that it is occupied). And if so, then another person can also do so on his behalf.
There is no prohibition here of stealing from the public, since the person for whom the place is reserved is also part of the public, and his right is no less than the right of the others. Only one person can sit in this place.
Isn't this a debt to the past?
When I wrote, I thought about whether to get into the nitty-gritty of the law of Zakhin and Migo Dzchi for themselves (which apparently doesn't exist here, because the signifier has another place for himself), but this is not about Zakhin, but about marking, and there is no problem with that. There is really no need for the law of mission/Zakhin here.
It is true that it is necessary to discuss whether another person who sees such a marking must obey it. Here, what determines is the custom, and it seems simple that it must, and in any case that custom also says that it is permissible to mark.
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