Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Takanas HaShuk -- Buyer Protection

This actually happened to my kids.  They had hired a new cleaning lady (with references).  My daughter came home unexpectedly at lunch time and found that the new cleaning lady had invited a couple of friends... one of whom was at the front door standing lookout.  Long story short: the friends had stolen my son-in-law's laptop and managed to fence it for $100 to a local pawn shop.  The police put the perpetrators in custody and told my son-in-law he could buy his laptop back from the pawn shop.  I was astounded!  Why should he have to buy back his own property?

I really should learn more.  Anyone who has bought a house knows that before you make an investment like that, you are going to want a thorough title search to be sure your investment is safe.  Without a title search, most would-be buyers would be scared off by the fear that at any moment they could lose their home to the rightful owners of the house.  It is impossible to do a title search on moveable property -- clothing, blenders, flatware, etc.  Chazal were sensitive to the fact that buyers who are constantly nervous about losing their clothing, blenders, flatware, and whatnot at any moment are not enthusiastic buyers; commerce would be severely hampered.

Chazal therefore instituted "takanas ha'shuk" to protect the marketplace by limiting the type of loss a buyer can experience (Bava Kama 115, and oodles of other places throughout shas and poskim).  While there are many details (are you tired of me saying that?), the broad strokes are straightforward.  Thomas the thief or Mark the mugger steal Oscar the owner's davening jacket.  Thomas and/or Mark sell said jacket to Bruce the buyer for a fair market value of $60.  Thomas and/or Mark are apprehended and identify that Oscar's jacket is in Bruce's possession.  Of course, the jacket needs to be returned to Oscar.  Takanas ha'shuk says (as long as Thomas and/or Mark are not well know criminals and Bruce is not a well known fence) that Oscar must reimburse Bruce for his expenses; Oscar will have to deal with suing Thomas and/or Mark for to be reimbursed for his expenses.

If Thomas and/or Mark had used Oscar's jacket to make a payment on their loan with Larry the lender, on the other hand, then Oscar gets his jacket back and the onus is on Larry to sue Thomas and/or Mark for his expenses.  Fair is fair, after all; there is no reason for Larry to benefit at Oscar's expense.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aru...
Post a Comment
Read more