[Avodah] Shmittah

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> Rabbi Arie Folger told a story, and wrote:

I have not yet received this post, but...

>> ... clearly that sale was a real sale. That story, however,
>> should illustrate one aspect of a real sale, that the price
>> is realistic. Selling the land without the slightest appraisal,
>> for a peruttah, seems like an asmachta. I hope and expect that
>> the Chief Rabbinate of Israel conducts at least some crude
>> appraisal.

According to the press story that was quoted here earlier, the value
is stated at 71.5 billion shekel.  I don't know how they arrived at
that figure, but it's hardly a prutah.


> 
> The point of your story, it seems, was to illustrate that one should
> not sell something for a token amount, but rather for its true value.
> If so, then I have to ask: Do you sell require an appraisal of the
> chometz that is sold before Pesach?

Absolutely.  But the appraisal doesn't have to be done immediately.
The contract says that goy agrees to buy the chametz at its market
value, to be determined by an appraiser who will be hired after yomtov.
Once the appraiser determines the price, the goy will pay it within a
reasonable time.  After Pesach we agree to buy it back for market value,
as would be assessed by an independent appraiser, plus some fixed
amount of profit.  Since the two market values cancel each other out,
there's no need to actually engage the appraiser, and we just give the
goy his profit.   If the goy decides not to sell the chametz back, then
ein hochi nami, we have to hire an appraiser to tell him how much to
pay.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas