[Avodah] chametz after pesach

[Akiva Blum]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: avodah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org 
> [mailto:avodah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] On Behalf Of Moshe Y. Gluck
> Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 7:33 AM

> R' Eli Turkel:
> > R Elyashiv holds that any sale by a nonreligious Jew even though no
> > chametz is sold over Pesach is not valid as the sale is 
> viewed as some
> > formality and he doesn't really mean it.
> 
> Never understood this. If the sale is enforceable in Beis Din 
> and secular
> court, who cares what the person thinks? IOW, if there's a 
> shtar that's
> valid, then the courts wouldn't assume that Daas Makneh is an issue.
> 

A number of years ago, someone tried to get out of paying interest on a loan
based on the terms of the heter iska agreement. The bank claimed it was just a
religious trick to avoid ribis, but had no legal effect. The courts in Israel
sided with the bank. Rav Elyashiv holds that if the courts could void a
perfectly sound contract on the basis of 'religious purposes', then all the
hetter iskas are no good, unless worded in a way the would close this loophole.

It may be that the same is true here. Whereas the contract may be enforceable in
Beis Din, if the seller or buyer could refuse to comply, and the secular Israeli
courts would back him, on no more that the claim that the contract is for
religious purposes, that the sale is ineffective.

Akiva