Q&A: Secular Courts
Secular Courts
Question
I have a monetary claim against some organization for hundreds of thousands of shekels.
They cheated me in a truly terrible way [and it also involves great disgrace].
Right now I can go to court and win according to the law. Not only would I profit, and by a lot, but those who cheated me would not only have to pay — the very fact of the hearing and the protocols being posted online could cause them enormous and irreversible damage, and also great disgrace [there are things there that would be a huge disgrace for them if exposed].
If I go to a religious court, I lose on both counts.
A. The field of activity for which we agreed they owe me payment [and are now cheating me] is, in the eyes of a large portion of Israel’s rabbinical judges, a great disgrace, and they will certainly be against me [it’s a commandment to make a wicked person like me lose]. And among the others [who may be a bit more tolerant toward the field for which I am owed payment and over which they are cheating me], they apparently have a different problematic outlook because of which they will award me very little…
[And this is a matter of basic worldview assumptions that there is no way to affect in the hearing, or to explain myself, etc. There is no chance. It’s lost in advance, 100%.]
B. There is no real threat to the defendants, because in a religious court there are no protocols, no internet, and no everlasting disgrace… and in the end the issue is only money. And over money it is worth it for them to argue, certainly in the religious courts as I explained in section A, where they will probably get off the cheapest.
So my question is:
A. Is it permitted for me at least to threaten them that I will go to court? [And that way they will have to settle the whole embarrassing affair quietly, behind closed doors, for both sides… of course I have less to lose relative to them, so the threat is a serious one.]
B. If they are not deterred [and think I won’t dare go to secular court], would it actually be permitted for me to sue them in secular court, since in the religious courts there is no one who will hear my cry…? [In the eyes of most judges, my occupation is something very forbidden and very disgraceful, and those who are somewhat more tolerant have another problem that prevents them from awarding fair compensation.]
Answer
It’s hard for me to answer such a question if I don’t know what exactly we are talking about (what the occupation is). In principle, in my opinion there is no prohibition on going to secular courts, and therefore also no prohibition on threatening to go to them. But if this really involves a prohibition, then of course it is forbidden to use secular courts to protect a prohibited activity. If you want to clarify this specifically regarding your case and you’re not comfortable posting it here, you can contact me by email and explain the matter, and I’ll try to think about it.
Discussion on Answer
I understood that in order to strengthen my claims before the Zionist court, it is apparently advisable also to file a complaint with the Registrar of Nonprofits. [The wrongs were committed by a nonprofit.] Does that too fall under the Rabbi’s permission to go to secular courts? [The extortionists are certainly even more afraid of that than of ordinary court, since it’s possible to strip them of proper-management status, Section 46, and the rest of the festivities…]
Yes. By the way, do you get a salary from Hamas? I liked the expression “the Zionist court,” and I’m sure they would too.
To the honorable gaon, Rabbi Michael, may his glory rise.
There is some kind of psychological process that resists bread of shame.
And this mechanism works in an interesting defensive way: it simply denies the kindness and claims, “I deserve it, he owes me.” It seems to me that Maimonides in his letters [to the sages of Kairouan?] hints at this: in order to survive, one has to accept gifts and charity [since one does not engage in labor], and then instead of walking around like the soot-blackened bottom of a pot [as one who is dependent on the public], there is a defense mechanism that says: “I deserve this… they owe me…” and so on.
Maybe nowadays this is expressed in a community that lives at the expense of the rest of the people through allowances, schemes, theft, and coercion, and then instead of feeling that we are desecrators of God’s name, despicable and contemptible exploiters, we have a defense mechanism: “We deserve it, they owe us, they are giving us only the minimum they are obligated to give,” along with other such statements. We don’t really believe these absurdities, but they are part of the internal discourse that lets us not kill ourselves from all the shame, disgrace, and humiliation over our way of life.
Part of this is expressions like “Zionists” and the like — meaning, we [the exploitative beggars] are better and superior to them… So those are words that help us try to build some kind of psychological barrier for ourselves.
Please accept this with understanding.
I’d be happy to.
But the Rabbi also belongs to one of those two groups of rabbis mentioned above…
So the verdict is already in…
That’s why I asked in terms of principles.
More power to you for the foundational answer.
It is worth more than gold and silver, quite literally…
There is no prohibition in going to secular courts. And if there I will get what I deserve, then I’ll go there.