[Avodah] Polygraph in Halakhah

[Micha Berger]

RDE and a semi-anonymous RML of avakesh.com (BCC-ed) each put
the following news story on their blogs.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243068980&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
or http://bit.ly/6GttGUhttp://bit.ly/6GttGU

    Rabbis: Woman must pass polygraph test
    Dec. 3, 2009
    JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

    In an unprecedented move, the Haifa Rabbinical Court has ordered a
    woman to answer questions about her relations with men and alleged
    drug abuse while connected to a lie detector, Army Radio revealed
    on Thursday morning....

RML comments on Avakesh:
    Comment: One of the biggest problems we now face in Beis Din is
    unscrupulous witnesses or outright lying. SInce there is no fear
    pf perjury, and the trappings of the procedures do not necessarily
    inspire awe or concern, and there is no process of discovery,
    a claimant or a witness can outright lie without a fear of
    consequences. This is, therefore, a positive development in my
    opinion.

    This is not a new issue. In a recent article, Rav Shlomo Korach
    discussed halachic use of the polygraph machine (lie detector),
    especially in regard to the rules of evidence. He concluded that
    the polygraph could be relied upon under certain conditions,
    although not as a single piece of evidence upon which a court
    decision would be based. Subsequently, the Rabbinic Supreme Court
    of Appeals (RSCA) published a decision with completely different
    conclusions, rejecting completely any recourse to a polygraph....
    see [http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/polygraph.html])

Given that not every secular jurisdiction considers the polygraph to be
sufficiently reliable for admission as evidence, I am wondering how we
determine how reliable a test must be to be good enough  for halakhah.
Rov when we may be someikh on rov, and then some shiur for milsa delo
shekhichah otherwise?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I have great faith in optimism as a philosophy,
micha at aishdas.org        if only because it offers us the opportunity of
http://www.aishdas.org   self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Arthur C. Clarke