[Avodah] Heter mechira

[Michael Makovi]

> In addition, there is the following difference: if, during Pesach, the purchaser should come to
> our door with his shtar in hand and ask to take possession of the items sold to him, I
> imagine that we would turn them over.
> R' EMT

In fact, this happened on a certain Israeli kibbutz; the Arab drove up
with a convoy of cargo trucks, and they took *everything*. And they
didn't stop him. The rabbi of the kibbutz decided to do a "real" sale,
and so he found a real live Arab, and this is what happened.

> Now imagine that the sheik who purchased EY comes to an olive grove during Pesach and
> tells the once and future owner that he is going to have all the trees chopped down, then and
> there, and pave it over for a parking lot.  Do you imagine that the sellers would stand idly by
> and let him do it?  If not, then again his refusal indicates that the sale was never meant.
> R' EMT

So just as you sell your chometz to a gentile whom you trust to not do
anything like what happened to the kibbutz, so too, you sell EY to a
gentile whom you trust to not do anything funny. Maybe sell EY to a
pizza boy in NY, for example.

Mikha'el Makovi