Q&A: Damage That Is Not Visibly Recognizable
Damage That Is Not Visibly Recognizable
Question
Hello Rabbi, what is the reasoning for exempting someone in a case of damage that is not visibly recognizable? If a person pours libation wine into my wine and thereby renders it invalid and causes me monetary loss, why should he be exempt from paying?
Answer
According to most views, damage that is not visibly recognizable applies only when the damage is halakhic rather than physical (for example, rendering terumah impure, making wine into libation wine, or stealing leavened food and returning it after Passover). In such a situation, this is considered indirect causation, because the object itself has not changed; it merely now has a prohibition attached to it. See Meiri on Gittin 53b and elsewhere. However, some have wanted to apply this also to cases in which the unrecognizable damage is not halakhic (such as a computer virus, for example), and there the reasoning is indeed problematic.
There is an interesting discussion of this in Shay Wosner’s book, Legal Thinking in the Lithuanian Yeshivot, regarding the approach of Rabbi Shimon Shkop on this issue.
See an overview here: https://www.yeshiva.org.il/wiki/index.php?title=%D7%94%D7%99%D7%96%D7%A7_%D7%A9%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95_%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%A8#cite_note-5