Q&A: Does a Rabbi’s Ruling in Monetary Law Exempt a Person from Liability in the Eyes of Heaven?
Does a Rabbi’s Ruling in Monetary Law Exempt a Person from Liability in the Eyes of Heaven?
Question
Does a rabbi’s ruling in monetary law exempt a person from liability in the eyes of Heaven?
For example, Anonymous is unsure about some future payment—whether he is permitted to accept it or not.
Anonymous goes to his rabbi and asks him, and his rabbi rules that it is permitted.
For the sake of the example, the rabbi was mistaken, and Anonymous does not know this, though he may discover it in the heavenly court.
Obviously, in human law that person is exempt (at least from a halakhic standpoint). The question is whether that person is also exempt in the eyes of Heaven, or whether he should act stringently and forgo that future payment.
And more generally, should a person act stringently in all matters between one person and another, or does a rabbi’s ruling exempt him even in the eyes of Heaven?
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. If it will become clear to him only after he dies (they’ll tell him in Heaven that the rabbi was mistaken), what exactly do you want him to do now? Right now the rabbi has ruled for him, and there is no reason at all for him to suspect an error. Do you mean that he should already now forgo the payment out of concern that his rabbi may have erred? There is no reason at all to worry about that. Obviously, he may rely on a halakhic ruling; there is no need whatsoever to be concerned that perhaps the rabbi is mistaken. If there were such a concern, it should apply in matters of prohibition and permission as well, not only in monetary cases.