[Avodah] Halachic who is right from "The Lost Scotch"

[Chana Luntz]

RMSS writes:

> The author then writes:
> 
> " No.
> 
> The singer had been told by the chosson that he wanted to 
> surprise the kallah. As such, Davidi knew that the kallah 
> would not know of the plan, and therefore have no reason to 
> tell Yehoshua that there was no room for a second singer. 
> Therefore, when the real Chaim ben Zundel showed up Yehoshua 
> and Davidi were equally surprised, sufficient grounds to 
> exonerate Yehoshua from paying.  "
> 
> He bases this, amongst other places, on the Mechaber CM 334:1 
> "Hasocher es hapoel l'hoshkos hasoteh mizeh hanahar, v'posek 
> hanahar b'chatzi hayom, im ein darko l'hafsek, oh afilu 
> sh'darko lifsok v'hapoel yodeih derech hanahar, p'seitah 
> d'poel v'ein ba'al habayis (BH"B) nosein lo klum, af al pi 
> sh'gam BH"B yodeih derech hanahar, avol im ein hapoel yodeih 
> derech v'BH"B yodeih, nosein lo s'choro k'poel boteil. HAGA - 
> v'chein b'chol oneis sh'aru l'poel, ben sh'shneiheim yodim 
> sh'derech h'oneis lavu oh sh'shneiheim einon yodin, havi 
> p'seitah d'poel, aval im BH"B yodeih v'hapoel eino yodeih, 
> havi p'seitah d'BH"B."
> 
> What do the readers on Avodah say?
> 

And then RMK writes:

>As the quote MSS brought from SA shows, if there was a difference in
knowledge (what's the technical economic term for that, again?) between
the 
>BHB/chasan and the poel/singer, he would be chayav to pay him k'poeil
bateil = to compensate him for his time.  Since there was no difference
in
> knowledge, he does not even have to pay that.  

However it seems to me than in fact in this case, unlike the case in the
Shulchan Aruch, there was indeed a difference in knowledge.

First of all, and only being slightly cute here - at the time that this
all occurred, Yehoshua was already married to Devorah and ishto k'gufo.
Yehoshua may have been surprised by the appearance of Chaim ben Zundel,
but the Yehoshua/Devorah combination was not.

But even leaving aside the halachic change encompassed by the nissuin
that occurred a few minutes earlier (to eliminate this let's say this
happened at the engagement party rather than at the wedding), the
knowledge level of Yehoshua and Davidi vis a vis Devorah's actions
(which ultimately is what caused the "ones") does not seem to me to be
the equivalent to the knowledge level of a worker and a baal habayis
regarding the operation of a river.  The stopping of a river is an act
of G-d, - one that might be known to occur frequently or not, but that
is what it is.  But the act here (the hiring of Chaim ben Zundel) was
the act of a person, Devorah, which then led to a chain of events that
prevented Davidi from singing.  It seems to me that there is a lot of
shakel v'tariah that is needed before this equation can be so
straightforwardly made.  A more analagous case seems to me where the
baal habayis hired one worker to water the field, and another worker got
up of his own accord and did the watering himself (without knowing about
the first worker) before the first had a chance to start.

But even if one is sure that this case involves an equivalent ones to
that of the river stopping, I don't think the cases are analogous, but
rather the analogy seems to me to be with the case where the baal
habayis knows that this is the derech of the river and the worker does
not (in which case the baal habayis has to pay).  One would reasonably
hope and expect that Yehoshua would have a greater knowledge of what
Devorah was likely to do than Davidi, who presumably had never met the
girl.  The fact that what Devorah did was actually a surprise to
Yehoshua does not seem to me to change that - if the river in fact
stops, it is clearly a surprise to the baal habayis, as he would never
have hired the worker to water his field if he had indeed thought that
was going to happen, despite him having a knowledge that this river has
a tendency to behave in this way.  So it is not nevuah that the baal
habayis needs in order to require him to pay, but rather a greater
knowledge of the derech of the river.  Similarly, Yehoshua must surely
be said to have a greater knowledge of the derech of Devorah - and
certainly knowing what the songs of Chaim ben Zundel meant to the
couple, in a way that Davidi could not have known, he should not really
have been surprised that Devorah tried to do something that would
incorporate them.  The method that she used may have come as a surprise,
but anything she did might well undermine his own plans, and it seems to
me that knowing the history puts him into a position of greater
knowledge more similar to baal habayis yodea v'hapoel aino yodeih than
to baal shneihem ainon yodin.

> KT,
> MSS

Regards

Chana