This year my blog will consist of excerpts from Joel Grishaver’s book series “You Be the Judge,” which presents different ethical issues and Jewish sources and responses to these issues.

Case

The Atlas family owned a baseball card store and was awarded a free trip to the Super Bowl because of the number of cards they sold.  They left a cousin to run the store.  A Nolan Ryan rookie card is worth about $200.  The cousin who was working in the card shop was a rookie, too, and knew little about card values.  She misread the catalog (missing the asterisk that said “all prices times ten”) when she quoted the kid $20.  The kid was a baseball card shark.  He knew a good deal when he heard one – even though he had just meant to “check out” the current value.  He biked home. Stole $20 from his mother’s purse and then grabbed the card.  The kid was also a regular.  When the owner checked the day’s sales and saw that this kid had bought that card for that price, he called him up and demanded that the deal be undone.  The kid said, “A deal is a deal.”  The Atlas kid and the “shark” went to Hebrew school together.  After the fight in the playground, the teacher took them to the principal, who told the rabbi, who called in the family for a conference.  The rabbi held a Beit Din, a Jewish Court.

Answer

In Jewish law there is a principal known as “a sale made in error.”  It is based in this Talmudic story:

Once there was a famine in a town named Nehardea.  All the people had to sell their homes in order to afford to buy food to stay alive.   When the wheat finally arrived and the famine ended, Rabbi Nahman made a ruling.  He said, “Torah teaches that the houses must be returned to their original owners.”

Rabbi Nahman’s ruling needs explanation.  The lack of food made the price of food rise.  People sold their homes in desperation.  What the people who sold their homes (the ones Rabbi Nahman made the purchasers return) didn’t know was that the ship bringing food was already in the harbor, waiting for low tide to dock.  The word had not yet gone out.  But as soon as it did, the price of food would drop and everyone would be able to afford it without selling their homes.  These sales were made without full information.  They were based on an error in understanding.  In Jewish law, any deal made with errors of understanding on either side can always be taken back.

And so the law follows Rabbi Nahman, ruling, “A person who sells a plot of land because s/he needed money, and after the sale learns that the money is not needed, can take the sale back (Ketubot 97a).

That Talmudic text was taught to the two involved families, and they followed its recommendation.

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge”, pgs. 7-8

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver