[Avodah] The White House Rubashkin Petition - A Halachic Analysis

[Prof. Levine]

 From http://tinyurl.com/3nho9s7

By now most everyone has heard of the White House 
Online Petition for Sholom Rubashkin.   The 
question is whether or not there is a Mitzvah of 
Pidyon Shvuyim in signing the petition, and the 
nature of the Mitzvah.  Rav Yechiel Michel 
Epstein (1829-1908) deals with the Mitzvah of 
Pidyon Shvuyim in his comments to the 252nd 
chapter of Yore Deah, in the laws of Tzedaka.

He writes (252:1), “And all this was in earlier 
times, and even nowadays in far flung 
wildernesses such as Asia and Africa, where 
bandits fall upon travelers and take them into 
captivity to the point where it is necessary to 
redeem them with large sums of money, as is known 
from the caravans that travel in the western wilderness.”

It seems that the Aruch haShulchan is suggesting 
that the full blown Pidyon Shvuyim and all its 
associated Halachos are a thing of the past and 
no longer applicable in the Aruch haShulchan’s 
time.  It is a controversial Aruch HaShulchan – 
one that has engendered three types of readings:

See the above URL for the rest of this article.  YL
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