[Avodah] The Sacred Shekel

[Zev Sero]

On 17/3/23 10:11, Prof. L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> One has to keep in mind that the approach of RSRH and his successors was 
> total and complete honesty, even beyond what the halacha require.

Bankruptcy is not dishonest. It is a law that all modern governments 
have made, for a very good purpose, ("letakanat hamedina" which is one 
of the criteria the poskim use to determine what is a legitimate dina 
demalchusa), and effectively abolishing it among Jews would tend to 
undermine that purpose, so it's not necessarily a good standard even for 
midas chassidus.

The purpose of limited liability, in combination with bankruptcy law, is 
to encourage people to take risks in business, by assuring them that 
they will not thereby drive themselves into poverty, or at the worst 
such poverty will not become permanent. Demanding of Jews that out of 
midas chassidus we repay such loans that dina demalchusa has discharged 
will tend to discourage us from taking such loans, and thus from 
engaging in the economic ventures that the loans would finance, to the 
detriment of the country, which is precisely what the various 
legislatures wanted to avoid.


-- 
Zev Sero            “Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
		    –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.