[Avodah] Is there any issur here al pi halacha? - New York man pleads guilty to selling Israeli human organs

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Nov 02, 2011 at 03:23:13PM -0400, Rich, Joel wrote:
: Not only that, but even if nobody is offering money and you are donating
: your water, you can give it to whomever you like. "Ve'ish es kodoshov lo
: yihyu".  There are no rules...

RZS made a similar comment yesterday (Thu Nov 3) at 12:43pm EDT:
: On 3/11/2011 11:01 AM, Micha Berger wrote:
:> OTOH, RZS appears to believe that public resources are a different issue
:> than brokering resources that never reach the public pool.

: My basis is simple dinei mamonos. The reason there are objective criteria
: for the public kupah is because it's the property of the whole community
: ...                     The Torah says that each person has the right
: to allocate *his* kodoshim as he pleases, not those of other people. ...

The pasuq refers to terumah and maaser rishon.

According to Rashi, it is saying you have the right to pick whichever
kohein or levi you wish, a kohein can't come and claim his portion by
force. But there are rules -- terumah to kohanim, and maaser to leviim.

According to the Ramban it refers to maaser sheini and neta revai
("qedoshav"), which are qodesh but his. And those too have rules.

I therefore assume you both are relying on a poetic extension of Rashi's
point (chazal's point as quoted by Rashi) -- a person may choose to give
*tzedaqah* to whomever he wants. This might be true in general, but it
is true when issues like "lo saamod" are involved? An exteme example:
May I give a formerly wealthy person his limo as a "dei machsero" when
I know of a poor person who hasn't eaten in 3 days and is omeid lamus?

And if not, then how do we know I can extend my general liberty of
choice of tzedaqah recipient to cases where I'm deciding mi yichyeh
umi yamus?

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A cheerful disposition is an inestimable treasure.
micha at aishdas.org        It preserves health, promotes convalescence,
http://www.aishdas.org   and helps us cope with adversity.
Fax: (270) 514-1507         - R' SR Hirsch, "From the Wisdom of Mishlei"