Q&A: Liability to Pay for Breaking a Glass at an Event
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Liability to Pay for Breaking a Glass at an Event
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I attended a wedding today and accidentally broke a glass belonging to the hall. Do I have to pay for the glass?
Thank you
Answer
No. This is damage that occurred through normal use. And especially here, in a certain sense, its owner is with it. However, if this was negligence and use not in the normal manner, there may be grounds to obligate payment under the law of one who causes damage (and this is not like negligence when the owner is with it, where according to most opinions one is exempt. See, for example, here), but nowadays it is accepted that the hall does not expect payment for this. In summary, I think you are not obligated to pay.
Discussion on Answer
Yes indeed. All of that is included in what I wrote in the last sentence.
I wanted to ask,
is there also a rationale here that if they were to charge for breaking a glass or staining a tablecloth and the like, then people wouldn’t want to go to a hall?
As if the whole idea there is that the guests aren’t liable for anything unless they are really causing damage…
Suppose even someone who is drunk and breaks glasses would be exempt. Only a person who breaks something for the sake of breaking it and causing damage would perhaps be liable.
And in any case, the price the hall charges is supposed to take into account the possibility that at every wedding this many glasses and other items will get broken, and this many tablecloths will get dirty. And that is already built into the bill that the celebrants pay.