[Avodah] Water bottle in the desert

[Daniel Israel]

Quoting "Rich, Joel" <JRich at sibson.com>:
> Reuvain has his water bottle and there's not enough for him and    
> shimon. Halacha is like Rabbi Akiva that reuvain keeps and shimon    
> dies.
> But what if shimon takes the water bottle with a claim that reuvain   
>  owes him money and let bet din decide.  Does reuvain have the right  
>   to kill shimon if that's the only way to get the water back?

CYLOR, obviously.  :)

But it seems to me that Shimon has no claim on the water bottle.  Even
if the debt is real, and Reuvain is modeh, Shimon certainly does not
have the right to demand the water bottle davka as payment.  Reuvain
can simply say he will pay the debt with something else.

At that point, it seems to me that Shimon is a rodef, and Reuvain
would be able to kill him in self defense.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu