the first part where we find inyan of a beis din is in Chumash, Parshas Yisro, when Moshe Rabbeinu himself sat and judged all the Yidden, till Yisro came and told him that what you're doing is no good, and what did Moshe Rabbeinu do? He made שרי אלפים, שרי מאות, שרי עשרות, and that was the establishment of the beis din. And we find in the Torah many times that the Torah refers to a Beit Din, when it says in certain cases if this and this will happen, ונתן בפלילים, ונתן בפלילים means you shall go to the Beit Din. Sometimes it says, והגישו אל האלקים, it says in פרשת משפטים, if this and this happens, there's a hezek, somebody is mazik somebody, he hurts somebody. Are you texting my the shiur to somebody? So, why are you playing with the phone now? No, I'm going to tell Rabbi Korff, he'll take it away from you. I'm telling you, in the middle of the shiur to sit and text? I'm going to tell Rabbi Korff, and like I tell you, he's going to take it away from you. Sitting here in the middle of texting. Not even not even tried to hide it. Or texting or or whatever you're doing. Unless you were writing the shiur. No? Okay. So, there is a din that we have to have batei dinim, and it's mentioned in the Torah many times, but it's a mitzvat aseh actually. It's a mitzvah. Where is the mitzvat aseh? Where does it say in the Torah you have to have Beit Din? פרשת שופטים. שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך. You have to have shoftim, so there's a mitzvat aseh that you have to. The gantze shaylah is in Eretz Yisrael or not Eretz Yisrael, but it says the Torah says, בכל שעריך. But could be it's only a chiyuv, a mitzvat aseh in Eretz Yisrael, could be not, but the bottom line is bichlalut this is the pasuk where we learn out that you have to have batei dinim. Not only must you have batei dinim in order for people who have a dispute should have where to come to to to straighten out their dispute, there's a issur that the Torah gives of going to a secular court. The Torah says, אלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם. These are the mishpatim that you have to put in front of them, so חז״ל דרשן לפניהם ולא לפני ערכאות של עכו״ם. You cannot go to a civil court. It's a issur. And it's so strict that the Gemara says, Rashi brings that if a person has a dispute with another Yid and goes to a civil court, that means that he is giving importance to the avodah zarah. So it's a real, real issur to go to a civil court. Now, we do find sometimes that people go, we'll get into it when when you're allowed to, what what the case is. But there is an issur to go to civil court. You have to go to a Beis Din made up of Jewish dayanim.

Now, who could be a dayan? Who could be a judge? So we know originally the dayanim were people who were סמוך איש מפי איש עד משה רבינו, people who had semichah. Semichah nowadays is nothing, I mean not as nothing, but it's not the semichah that the Gemara talks about. Semichah used to be that איש מפי איש, meaning you would get semichah from somebody who got semichah, who got semichah from somebody who got semichah all the way going back to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua got semichah from Moshe Rabbeinu. So really it's a long, long chain that with semichah that the Gemara talks about was a semichah given going back from Moshe Rabbeinu. And that gave the authority to the person who got semichah, and there are all kinds of dinim who could get semichah, how to get semichah, but a person who got semichah had the authority to pas ken all kinds of dinim: דיני ממונות when it comes a dispute of money, דיני קנסות when it comes to a she'eilah of kenas, because there are certain dinim in the Torah which is kenas. Lemashal, who who could give me an example, what's a kenas rather than mamon? Huh? A shor killing an eved? A shor killing an eved. If a shor is mazik and kills another shor, or kills a person, then there's a din, you evaluate how much that's that's a regular mazik. But if a shor, an ox of a person kills an עבד, the Torah says you have to give thirty shekalim, whether the עבד is worth two cents or the עבד is worth a million dollars. So anytime the Torah says a fixed amount, you know that it's a קנס. Or it says by אונס ומפתה, מוציא שם רע, it says you have to pay a hundred shekalim, fifty shekalim. These are all קנסות. So if you have סמיכה איש מפי איש עד משה רבינו, then you could pasken all kinds of dinim. But at a certain point in history, the time of the Tannaim, נפסקה, there was no more semichah. For whatever reason, the semichah stopped. So the moment there's no more semichah, so a person who doesn't have semichah, בעצם cannot pasken. He cannot be a dayan. In order to be a dayan, you have to have סמיכה איש מפי איש. But if according to this, that there is no more semichah, and mimela you can't be a dayan, so how in the world do we have any dayanim? How in the world do we have a din Torah? How do we have when you come when you come to Beis Din to pasken? So the answer is that the Gemara says that אנן שליחותייהו דקא עבדינן. The people who were the last ones who had semichah made all the future generations, those who are qualified, to be their shluchim. But this din of shelichus that they made is only when it comes to דיני ממונות. When it comes to dealing with a monetary dispute between two people, they got the reshus, not only reshus, they got the shelichus of those. Also לגבי other things, למשל לגבי גרות, when it comes to be megayer somebody, you have to have a Beis Din. You have to have three dayanim. We have that reshus from them. When it comes to be מתיר נדרים, you have to have a בית דין. So we have dayanim now, you have a בית דין, and we have their שליחות. But when it comes to דיני קנסות, they didn't give us the שליחות, and memela we can't. So bottom line is we have the right to פסקן a דין now. So originally the דין was only if you had semicha, but afterwards that we have people who are qualified and have the the the the knowledge, they could they could they could be dayanim to פסקן a דין. What you do have to do is you have to learn the halacha, to be a person who learned the halachot of דיני ממונות, all the different halachot, and you get semicha, what we call nowadays semicha. And what's nowadays semicha? That a a Rav or somebody gives you רשות, because otherwise you're not allowed to פסקן without רשות of of your rebbi or of somebody who's greater than you. So when you get semicha, you get רשות to פסקן. So some people get semicha only יורה יורה, which means they have רשות to פסקן דיני איסור והתר. Like this, you're not allowed to פסקן, if the person's rebbi is alive, you can't פסקן within how many miles of within his house, you can't פסקן. So you get the רשות. And sometimes if you learn more, you learn חושן משפט and you know the halachot of דיני ממונות, you also get not only יורה יורה, ידין ידין, you could be a dayan. So now that you if you have that, you're able to be a dayan. And what happened, what does the dayan do? So if you're a dayan, you could be one of the three dayanim when it comes to a dispute between two people. What do the dayanim do? The job of the dayanim is to listen to the two sides and come to a decision according to the Torah who's right. Does he owe money, does he not owe money? But

besides paskening according to the Torah there's another concept, and that is making a פשרה, making a compromise between the two. Actually the Gemara says it's a good idea to make a compromise. That means even if על פי תורה, according to strict strict halacha this person owes him the money or doesn't owe, whatever, there's an idea of making a compromise. But you could only make a compromise, a פשרה, if both sides agree for a פשרה. If both if one of the two sides says, \"No, I'm coming to din Torah because I want full, clear din Torah. Whatever the תורה פסקנ'ס, according to halacha, according to the poskim in the Torah, that's what I want,\" then the beit din cannot pasken a פשרה. The only thing is nowadays there is no beit din that will say, \"We're going to פסק'ן על פי תורה.\" Only על פי תורה. Who is the one that could say on himself that he's baki in all the halachot and he knows that על פי תורה it's like this? So therefore what they do nowadays is, lechatchilah when you go to a beit din you know that you're giving the beit din the right to פסק'ן על פי תורה, על פי דין, and the לשון that you say is, you don't even have to say it, it's automatic, is פשרה קרוב לדין, close to din, but like a פשרה. And lechatchilah the two dayanim, the two בעלי דין, the two sides accept upon themselves automatically that if the beit din will feel that this is a good idea to make a פשרה, they have the right to make a פשרה. And if the two בעלי דין, if the two litigants, the two people agree to it, then על פי תורה you're allowed to do it. Because I'll tell you bichlal, bichlal there's a din like this: there are so many dinim who could be a dayan and when קרובים, if you're this, that. All that is if you want to go according to din. If the two בעלי דין agree, they could agree to anything. The לשון in the Gemara is if two בעלי דין agree that, \"We don't care if ג' רעי בקר, three shepherds,\" come right back, \"three רעי בקר, we don't care if these three peasants should be the דיינים of our din Torah.\" If both sides agree to it, then they pasken, and whatever they פסק'ן על פי תורה you must keep. You must keep whatever the בית דין paskens because it's called קיבלו עליהו. You're mekabel upon yourself. There a mashal kind of דינים, if a דיין is a קרוב, if one of the judges is a קרוב to one of the בעלי דין, to one of the litigants, he can't be a דיין. What happens if both of them agree, \"We don't care if this קרוב will be,\" or two דיינים cannot be קרובים between themselves? What happens if both דיינים both בעלי דין say, \"We don't mind if you're קרובים\"? You're allowed to, and it has this full, full strength of a din Torah, the full strength of a דין, and the בית and the people have to listen to what the בית דין paskens because they were mekabel this upon themselves. That's called קיבלו עליהו. So the same thing with a פשרה. With a פשרה you're able to accept upon yourself, and if you accept upon yourself, then the בית דין could do it. And that, whatever בית דין paskens, you must keep. And whatever בכלל בית דין paskens the two בעלי דינים must keep. Now why must they keep it? So sometimes when there's a בית דין in a city, a בית דין קבוע, a set בית דין, the בית דין has a right to force you to come to a בית דין. If the בית דין calls you, you must come. So if somebody comes to בית דין and says, \"I have a טענה to this and this guy,\" and בית דין subpoenas him to come, sends him a hazmanah to come, he must come. And he must come, he must listen. Ah? \"What if he doesn't agree?\" If it's a בית דין קבוע in the city, there's no such thing not agreeing. But there is another way there could be a beit din.

There are two ways of having a beit din, and this is נוגע למעשה. There are two ways having a beit din: you could have three neutral people, three neutral dayanim, or you could have what is called a זבלא. A זבלא, the word זבלא is a roshei teivot. What's the roshei teivot? זה בורר לו אחד, that's ז' ב' ל' א', and really this is just the beginning of a phrase. The phrase is זה בורר לו אחד וזה בורר לו אחד. One בעל דין, one side chooses his rav, the other side chooses his rav, and the two rabbanim together choose a third one. And now you have three. So if there is no בית דין קבוע, you could set up a beit din of three people, And that could be in two ways: you could get together, we're going to go to a din Torah and we want these three rabbanim, we accept these three rabbanim, or each one says, \"I have a rav I want\", he has a rav he wants, and the two together pick up a third rav, choose a third rav, and that's a זבל״א. The ma'alah of a זבל״א is, why would this person choose one and this person choose one? Because you have a choice now to choose somebody who you feel will be מצדד, will look to your side. Now, neutral three neutral people are not looking to any sides. They're taking the din Torah and they're looking to what they hear, and they're going to come to a decision who they think is right, על פי תורה, על פי פשרה, whatever it is. But זבל״א, you take somebody and you're allowed to take somebody who you ask him, \"Will you be my side? Will you look out for me?\" Now, I have to make it clear, it's not like some people think that a זבל״א means that the one that you chose, we call him your בורר, so he has his בורר, he has his בורר, that your בורר is your lawyer. He's not your lawyer. He's a dayan. A dayan cannot be a lawyer for you. A lawyer is completely on your side. A בורר is not a lawyer. But he's looking into seeing the truth neutrally, but with a certain נטיה to trying to see if your side makes sense and trying to find reasons, or סברות, or re'ayot from poskim to your side. But he's not a lawyer, huh? A relative can never be unless they both agree. But as far as being נוטה to your side, it's not even נוטה, מצדד it's called, trying to find your side better, that's called a זבל״א. So people like to have a זבל״א. There's a ma'alah and a chesaron. There's a ma'alah in a זבל״א that you feel confident that there is somebody looking out for you. The problem with a זבל״א is that there is somebody looking out for the other guy! But if you don't take a זבל״א and they're all three neutral, then they're all equal. There's nobody looking out for you, but there's nobody looking out for him. So some people like to have a דין תורה, they say, \"No, we want three neutral rabbanim.\" But in a case where it's not a real בית דין קבוע and one side demands, \"I want a זבל״א\", you have to have a זבל״א, you have to do the din in a זבל״א. But when they do accept a זבל״א, you have to make a kinyan to show that you accepted. So when the two sides accept these three people, whether it's a זבל״א or not, the בית דין will make a kinyan with them. What's a kinyan? A קנין סודר. They give him the handkerchief, they pick it up. By doing this, they're committing themselves to listen to this din. And then whatever the בית דין פסקנ׳ס, this is the din, and they must listen על פי תורה. Just like there's a din that you have to eat matzah on Pesach, you have to listen to the psak din of the rabbanim. Because you accepted upon themselves, and this is a בית דין, so you have to listen. What happens if you forgot to make a kinyan? So the gantze shaalot in poskim if you could say, well, it's automatic or takeh you could say, well, in that case I don't have to listen. But this is what is the case of of of זבל״א. Now, we know that there's a din by dayanim, you cannot listen to one side without the other side present. A dayan cannot listen to one side without the other side there to refute, to answer. The she'elah is by a זבל״א, can your בורר listen to you before the דין תורה? Like this, if it's three neutral people, they can't they have to know what it's about, so when you get a din Torah, you know this is about this guy claims he owes him $100. So you know what it's about, but you don't know the טענות, you don't know what's his reason, you don't you're not allowed to. If you're going to hear from one guy, and it's a normal thing, if you hear from one person, it already automatically makes an impression. So you have already an impression, so later on you can't be neutral, you can't look at the thing real clear, so you're not allowed to do it. The shaila is if by a זבל״א, if you have a בורר that you choose, are you allowed to speak to your בורר? Many poskim hold you're also not allowed. But the Aruch Hashulchan and others poskim hold that you are allowed. לפועל ממש, I think in Eretz Yisrael in the בתי דינים they don't allow it, but in America in the בתי דינים, they do allow, followed the Aruch Hashulchan, that the בורר is allowed to listen to the guy who he's I don't want to use the word representing because he's not representing him, he's not his lawyer, but he's the guy that is looking for out for his side, so you're allowed to talk to him. לפועל ממש, because it's accepted to follow the Aruch Hashulchan that you're allowed, so now according to everybody it's okay, even those that hold it's not allowed, because the fact that they know lechatchila this is what it's going to be, and they nevertheless go to a din Torah, so it's as each side knows that this is what's going to be done. So, obviously, he's going to he's מסכים, and as we said before, if each side is מסכים, you could be מסכים to anything. If they agreed that this should be, let's say both sides agree, even when they're three neutral people, both sides agree, \"I don't care if you go and talk to them before. I'm so confident in my side, you could talk to them today till tomorrow, I know I'm going to win,\" let's say. So, if I agree that he they should listen to him, you're allowed to. In this case, now that we all, in America at least, follow this opinion of the Aruch Hashulchan that you're allowed to listen to him before, so nowadays it's okay. Because now when you go to the din Torah, lechatchila you know that's going to happen and you are מסכים. So, when you're מסכים, you're allowed to do it. When it the סדר of what happens when you want to go to a din Torah? What what's the case? Let's go practically speaking.

When there is a person who has a taanah to somebody, what do you do? You know, you claim somebody did something to you, caused you damage, and you want to claim money. You ask him for the money, he doesn't pay you, so you say, \"I'm going to take you to court.\" That's what you court You're not allowed to go to civil court, so you go to a din Torah. What do you do? The first thing he's supposed to do is you go to the מזכיר of the בית דין, every בית דין has a מזכיר. You go to the מזכיר of the בית דין, or you call him up, or you send him a text, or you send him an email, which is the way it goes actually nowadays. I'll show you their emails. I'm not the מזכיר of a בית דין, but I could show you the emails because I see what's going on. So, you send him an email that you want to call this and this person to a din Torah. You have to write what your din Torah's about, and you have to give general outlines. You can't just call and say, \"I want to call him to a din Torah.\" \"Why?\" \"I'll tell you what. By the din Torah, I don't want to give away my thing.\" You can't do that. What is it about? What you say, \"Well, the guy owes me money. He doesn't want to pay.\" That the בית דין is not going to accept that. How does he owe you money? We don't need all the details to know exactly the \"Why? Because he lived I rented him my house, and he didn't pay me rent.\" That's enough. Now, we don't know what his taanah is, maybe what the other guy says, \"What do you mean? How long did\" That's enough for בית דין to see, yes, this is something that deserves a din Torah. And then if you pay the הזמנה fee, the בית דין will send out a הזמנה. A הזמנה is a subpoena to the other side that you are asked to come to beit din. And when you're sent a הזמנה, you have to answer. If it's a beit din in a city that's a beit din, an accepted beit din, you have to come. If you don't answer, beit din will send a second הזמנה. If you don't answer this I'm just talking the way it's now done nowadays. If you don't answer, because beit din gives you amount, like 10 days we need an answer. Goes 10 days, if you don't answer, so sometimes, you know, if they want they'll wait another few days, they'll send you a second הזמנה. Second הזמנה says, \"You didn't answer the first, we're sending you a second one.\" Then you give him a time. Usually, what people like to do is, if they don't want to go to the din Torah, they push it off. They don't answer. Eventually, they have to answer, but they try, you know, you can push it off as much as you want. Not as much as you want, as much as you can. So, you push it off another week. Okay. Fine, you get a second הזמנה. You get a second הזמנה, and it says now you must come. They still don't answer. That's what happens. Unless the other side, the one that's being called The תובע is the one that calls, the נתבע is the one that's being called, unless he wants a din Torah. Sometimes you have a נתבע who wants a din Torah. \"I want to prove my points.\" Then he'll answer right away, \"Yes, I'm ready to come.\" But many times the נתבע is the one that doesn't want it. The תובע is looking for money, he doesn't want to He doesn't want to go to a din Torah, he'd rather not pay him, and that's it. So, he doesn't answer. You send a third הזמנה. Now, if a person doesn't answer three הזמנות, then this person could get what's called a סירוב. A סירוב means that it's a שטר that you are not coming to beit din. Now, what can beit din do if a guy doesn't come? See, lehavdil, in goyishe court, if they send you a subpoena to court and you don't come, what is it? You're contempt of court, and then you go to jail. Nu, beit din doesn't have jail. So, what can you do? You can give him a tzetel that he's a מסרב לדין, and the other guy could take this tzetel, make 1,000 copies, make a mailing and send it out to the whole city. Could hang it up in all the shuls, and the guy who it's about doesn't really like it, so that's one of the things. על פי הלכה, if a person gets a סירוב, he's in cherem. You can't be מצטרף him to a minyan, you can't give him an aliyah, you can't do any business with him, he's in cherem. That's why the batei dinim try to avoid giving a סירוב. It's seldom that you hear giving a סירוב, and there were certain דיינים that said, \"Baruch Hashem, in my life I never wrote a סירוב.\" ever signed a סירוב. But I'm just talking מעיקר הדין, you could do it. And besides that, what you could do is you give the other side, the תובע side, the right to go to court. Because many times you feel that if you'd go to court, you'd win. You just don't go to court because you're not allowed to go to court. And this is one of the cases you're allowed to go to court, if the guy doesn't answer. Or he answers you, \"I'm not coming.\" Happens already. I know what's happened, guys answer, \"No, I'm not coming. I don't want to come.\" Huh? We'll get to that in one second. So, in a case like that, Beit Din will give you the right to go to court, if it's a case where you feel you could win in court. Sometimes there's a Din Torah over something which not in court, that you won't win. In halacha you'll win, in court you won't win. Then that's not going to be an עצה. Sometimes there is a case. למשל, I'll give you an example of a case. A person bought a house. The neighbor claimed that he has first rights to buy the house, based on what halacha? Can't hear. What's that called? יידישע שפראך. דינא דבר מצרא. There's a halacha that if there are two neighbors and one person wants to sell his land, his house or his land, he's not allowed to sell it, he has to first offer it to the neighbor. If the neighbor wants to buy it, he has to sell it to him. Not only that, even if someone else bought it, he has a right to tell the guy, \"You have to get out and it's I have right to get it.\" That's the דין. So there was a case, I know there was a case where the guy called a guy a Din Torah that this דינא דבר מצרא. Now in this case, what happens if the guy who bought it, who is being called to Din Torah, doesn't want to come? And he's not coming. You can't tell the תובע, \"Okay, you have a right to go to court,\" because in court, ain't going to win. There's no דינא דבר מצרא in goyishe law. So you can't you'll go to court, you won't win. So here, that's not an עצה. Sometimes there is an עצה, if it's a case where there's a dispute, and I have document, and I show that you owe me money, he should not, and in court you could win, but you're not allowed to go to court, so you send הזמנה, if he doesn't go, you give a right. So usually people try to avoid doing this. So as much as they try to procrastinate and they wait, and they wait, and they But the last minute, when it comes to, you know, the last minute, they will answer. What will they answer? Or they'll answer, \"We'll come.\" \"I'll come.\" So right away they say, \"Okay, let's set up a date. What do you What do you want?\" And usually people want is is a זבל״א. People feel more comfortable with זבל״א. I have to tell you, as a Dayan to be part of a זבל״א, I think is worse, because you try כביכול The guy who chose you thinks that you're going to make him win. What happens if he doesn't win, or he doesn't get what he wants? What What happens at the end? He gets mad at you. Exactly. Every time you sit by a Din Torah, a Dayan sits by a Din Torah, one thing is guaranteed: the end will be he will get a new enemy. Sometimes you get two enemies, both sides. One enemy you get for sure, and I'm telling you this from experience. Every time you sit by a Din Torah, you will definitely get I can guarantee you, you will get one enemy for sure. Sometimes both sides are upset because if you don't give in to either, you make like a פשרה, so each one is And that's and that's a problem. But let's get back to it. So what happens is if a person wants a Din Torah, you come to the מזכיר, you pay the fee that it costs to send out the הזמנה, that they charge, and then if eventually, let's say the guy agrees, \"Let's go to a Din Torah.\" So if you say it's זבל״א, okay, choose. Who do you choose? And this starts a new process, a process of shlepping. \"I choose this guy.\" \"No, we're not מסכים that you should choose this guy.\" Now, not always do they have a right, so באמת the other side has no right to say, but they always come People come up with all kinds of ideas. \"You chose this Rav to be your and, ah, I have a reason why he's פסול. He is a קרוב to Chaim Yankel, and Chaim Yankel might gain from this Din Torah, this and he's a קרוב, נוגע בדבר.\" And this is common. It's a din Torah actually going on now between, and the guy they chose a guy, and this, \"No.\" The other side says, \"You're pasul because one of the workers in that company,\" which has nothing to do with this din Torah, \"if this din Torah wins, then he'll gain, and he's a shvager to this guy who who you chose.\" And it's back and forth. Letters are going back and forth, if I could only show it to you. The letters going back and forth, that he says, \"No, this is not a pasul.\" This says, \"Yeah, pasul.\" עס טוט זיך א געשעפט. Always find eitzot. But let's say That's why it takes People know when you want to go to a din Torah, it's a אין לדבר סוף, because a shleppen and a shleppen and a shleppen for years. But let's say finally you agree, yes, you got this guy, and you got this guy, and finally the two then then there's a new געשעפט, the two should choose a third. Now, the בעלי דין really have no say who the third should be, the two דיינים supposed to choose. But what happens usually, we allow them to give their opinion. Oh, הויבט זיך אן a געשעפט, you can't choose this guy, everyone's afraid this guy is going to be much for him, for me, for this, we make them klotz. But let's say finally you get to the point they chose, we sit down to din torah.

So, the seder is like this. The first thing that you do is you make the kinyan, you sign a שטר ברורין. You have to sign a שטר that you are both, each one signs that they agree to listen to this בית דין of these three people, they're going to listen. And then starts the whole דיון. You could sit for hours. How does the din Torah go? It's not like in court where you have a place where people can come and watch the case of the whole thing. We don't let in anybody but the two בעלי דין. Three דיינים and the two people בעלי דין. It happened many times, a person comes and he brings along his brother-in-law for moral support. So, if the other side doesn't care, it's interesting, if you want him to sit, let him sit. But the other guy says, \"What are you doing here? Who are you?\" \"I'm his brother-in-law.\" \"Your brother-in-law? Fine. Shalom aleichem.\" So, and על פי דין, if he is not part of the din Torah, then he can't, they could tell him to leave, and that's what happens. I know of even one case, they brought up a big Rav along. So, what's he doing here? Well, he knows things. כבודו במקומו מונח, please leave. If we need you, let's say to testify, we'll call you. Yeah, we'll call you. You can sit outside. You could sit and wait till we call you, if we if we want to call you. But as you can't bring in. The question is can you bring a טוען? A טוען is a another word for a lawyer. Somebody who will טענה for you. What's a lawyer? A lawyer represents you, he טענה's for you. Now, there are some בתי דינים who do not allow a טוען because we know what the lawyers are like. And these טוענים are exactly like the lawyers. אלא מאי, they're they do it in a different way. A טוען, he knows the case before, so he already did search researches and he found pieces of a vort from the תשובה some place, some place it says, or he finds all kinds of loopholes and things and eitzah's and fardrayte maasehs, they're mamash like lawyers. So, some batei dinim says there is no such thing. You can't have, in halacha we don't allow a טוען. Many places do. In America, I think the case is also this is one, there are different approaches in ארץ ישראל'דיקע בתי דינים and America. In America, you allow a טוען. The only thing is if a person plans to bring a טוען, you have to notify before so the other side should also get ready and bring it. Maybe the other side didn't plan to bring a טוען, but if you're bringing a טוען, he also wants to bring a טוען. So, you have to tell him. And there are these famous טוענים in New York who are, I would say, אונטער וועלטניקעס. Oh, if I see a טוען by the din Torah, I get nervous. Cuz these guys are Actually, I'm not to get into the into politics, but one of the people that was arrested now, one of these 10 people who were arrested for the whole thing that is going on with the gittin, is a famous טוען. His name is known and he's a טוען and he comes and he's real real זאגט Guy was פארדרייט the קאפ and the But anyway, so you sit by the din Torah, the seder is the תובע, the one that called the din Torah, has first picks, he chooses he speaks first. While he's speaking, the other guy, no one could interrupt him. The beit din could stop him, ask him questions, but the other side, we don't allow him, don't say anything. Guy could speak for an hour. He have all his ta'anot. You have some comments? Take a piece of paper, write down your comments. You'll have your turn. The guy speaks and speaks and speaks. And after he's finished, nine. While he's speaking, you could ask him questions cuz you want to make clear what he's saying. And sometimes people get nervous. They think when the beit din asks the dayanim asks a question, oh, that means that he's against me. He's trying to catch me. Not trying to catch anybody, just trying to know exactly what are you saying. Not that we say you're right. We don't know if you're right or wrong. Maybe you're lying, maybe But say clear, so we should know what is your What is your your your your shita? What What are you saying? Then when this guy finishes, then the other guy has. And the other guy gets up and he says, \"This guy didn't know. He's a ganav, a liar. He said this and this. This never happened and never this.\" Okay. The other guy's quiet now. And this how it goes on, back and forth and back and forth. Sometimes it goes for hours and hours. Many times it doesn't just go for hours, go for days. You could sit for hours, in one day, 9 hours, the next day you could sit. There was a din Torah not long ago that was for 30 hours. It went on for 30 hours. Afterwards, the בשעת מעשה, they come up with re'ayot and documents and things. Now the klal is that if you have a document that you want to show to prove your point, you have to show it to the other side, too. Gives a To the dayanim, but you have to show the other side. The other side should be able to dispute. So usually they know lechatchila, if they come with these they make three copies, no, actually four copies, for the each one of the dayanim and the other side, and then their own. And then when if later on, it happens after you finish, days later, in the email you get papers and things, and pages upon pages. Tell them always, \"Don't write so long, because no one's going to read it. Who has geduld to read all these things?\" But they send, so you have to send it to the other side also. And the other side sees it and says, \"Whoa, this guy, whoa, this isn't what he's talking about.\" And they go back. Sometimes, in the middle of din Torah, you had, זאגט אויף יידיש, העכערע טענער. You people scream at each other, that this, and you have to calm them down, it's calls it that that's the seder. After this, this, the sessions are over, the dayanim between themselves speak over, but then it takes days, weeks sometimes, to get more information for the dayanim to decide. Sometimes you have to get witnesses, they claim this and this happened, we have to know if it's true. So you have to have or witnesses, or people and you, sometimes the dayanim do their own research. Well, see the truth is it's not like in halacha witnesses with all the גדרים of witnesses. It's not a halacha witness, it's just a form of research. You ask them questions. Lemashal, you would if it be a a woman that you want to ask a question, we do it too. Even though in halacha a woman can't be an עדות, but we're not dealing here with הלכה׳דיק, because nowadays the beis din doesn't go through a lemashal a certain דינים we learn in Gemara that this and this and this, חייב שבועה. We don't ask anybody to swear, there's no shvuos nowadays. I heard that some ספרדישע בתי דינים still have shvuos, which I don't know if it's true or not, but we don't have shvuos nowadays. Same thing with עדות. It's not דין עדות. If, because it's lechatchila based on the concept of peshara. If you're going to go din Torah clearly, then you can't say if you say, \"Well, we asked this woman and this and she said that against what you said. She was said she saw exactly what you did.\" So, really what could they answer? Don't take it in account, because a woman is פסול לעדות. But we're not dealing here with din Torah, pure din Torah, we're dealing with, you know, in research. And sometimes the דיינים do their own research. Remember we had once a din Torah, actually a din Torah was in my house. It was here, two רבנים came down from New York and there were two people here. A maaseh it was a perfume a געשעפט, he sold perfume and he had and then and the question he had it for too long, and could it rot, could it could it could it get ruined or not, it was a גאנצע געשעפט that was $4 million and. And these two people were not not, not Lubavitcher. Frum, I don't know. Then I wanted to know why are they going to din Torah, why didn't they go to court? Well, official teirutz is you're not allowed to, but that wasn't the real teirutz. There's some illegal stuff there. No, we didn't deal with that. We just dealt with a ta'anah. But if you go to court and you'll start saying, and the court will find out how this all, how did it get that, how did it get to you, how where did it start from, it's illegal stuff. They don't want to get to that. We didn't deal, I don't know where it came from. We're not dealing with it, we weren't dealing with that. And the punkt, I happened to be overseas, happened to be by a chassunah in France, and we passed by a place, and someone took us, one of the chatanim took us, to a certain place, and we passed by a big, gigantic perfume factory. So I said, \"Oh, here I have a chance,\" because it was a sheilah, how does it work with a perfume. So I went in, I sat down with one of the machers there, and we discussed this, and he clarified to me exactly how these things work, and that based on that, we came up with a psak, because because you could do all this this type of investigation. And then the beis din afterwards, when they come with their decision, and usually they try to make a peshara, sometimes you can't make a peshara. Sometimes it's so black and white, this guy is a ganav, and this guy pashut stole his money. He did things that pashut you can't come with a peshara, \"Well, you're claiming $100,000, let's, you know what? Let's only מחייב him 700 uh 75,000 because of peshara.\" You can't do that if the guy is a real ganav. Most cases, it's not like that. Very seldom when it's a clear-cut case. And if it's not a clear-cut case, so you have to use a lot of halachah, you have to use a lot of שיקול הדעת. And a lot of times in halachah, we find an expression, הכל לפי ראות עיני הדיין. The שיקול הדעת, the understanding of the dayanim. So the dayanim, and it's three people, so they discuss it between the together, between themselves. So here, since it's not clear-cut, you're to make a pesharah. So many times, most times it comes to a pesharah, that, and the one, the klal is like this, the one that seems more to be right, even though it's not clear, the klal is would get two-thirds, and the other guy gets a third. And a lot of things are נוגע, the Beis Din will find out what's the legal law. Like you could ask, \"Who cares what the legal law is? We have to paskenen על פי תורה.\" So, there's a din like this, there are many things in דיני ממונות, when it comes to monetary things, the halachah is certain klalim, the Rambam. But then the Rambam says, many, many times, in these halachos. If there is a מנהג המדינה, if there's a certain custom how the people behave, הכל כמנהג המדינה. So all these klalim fall off, because if it's a מנהג המדינה, that's how you do, so that's accepted by you. So here, when a person makes a contract with somebody, let's say, and then there are all kinds of she'eilos. He made a contract, a legal contract, with a notary public, so it's a legal thing, a legal document. Why did he go to make a legal document? Why didn't he just write a שטר על פי הלכה, like if you find from the Gemara a shtar and make a shtar? Because he wants it to be legal. Why do you want it to be legal? Obviously, you're going according to the מנהג המדינה, the way the way the country is, the way affairs are. If so, we could find out what is the מנהג המדינה. So sometimes the dayanim would call a lawyer, find out what is the law in such a case, and they would use that a lot to pasken. Not because we pasken according to the goyishe law, but then if this is you had a contract, and you guys had these types of dealings, and you all did it legally, so then the legal system and the legal halachos will apply here, so we will pasken according to the legal halachos. But it's not because that what they say is is heilig, it's because this becomes the מנהג המדינה. Now, sometimes it's the machloket is not over money, could be over rights. You have, in simple terms, two shluchim. Whose territory is this? This is one of the common דין תורות in Vaad Rabonei Lubavitch. Whose territory is it? I'm a shaliach here, you moved into my territory. Is it your territory? How What kind of right do you have in this? This is not a מענין of money, it's a question pashut in זכותים, in rights. And there also, you have to look in. Here, what do you have to know? In a case like this, just let me tell you as, אם ירצה השם, you'll be shluchim, besides the fact that the Rebbe wrote a letter in תשנ״ב that any סכסוך, any dispute between shluchim has to go to Vaad Rabbonei Lubavitch, it makes sense. You cannot go to non-Lubavitch rabbanim. Not because we say, \"Oh, Lubavitch rabbanim, they're the the the the best rabbanim in the world.\" It's not true, that's not the reason. The reason is, if we're dealing with these things of shlichut and this, you have to pasken based on the כללים of shlichut. הכל כמנהג המדינה, what is the minhag in shlichut? You take a Satmar guy, what's he going to know? How could he pasken? You have to have Lubavitch people, because they know the system, they know what is what Lubavitch, they know what shlichut is. The same thing other things, you have to have people who would know. Now, if you have other types סכסוכים, which also might not know, a סכסוך between two doctors, you don't know medicine, good, so you'll have to find out. But here, why take You can't take Besides, the Rebbe doesn't want that you should take out, as the Rebbe wrote, not this לשון, אַ וועלט'ס אַ לשון, take out your dirty laundry for פרעמדע people, why should people know what's going on? Mimeila, you keep it inside the family, inside Lubavitch. And then

after this is all done, the beit din writes down a פסק. In the פסק, it says the synopsis of the טענות, and then what the פסק דין is. And, unfortunately, that's when the trouble starts, because that's when this guy doesn't like, doesn't like, and there's a גדר, a halacha that you could you could say, \"מהיכן דנתוני? I want a source of your פסק,\" and then it goes on and there's back and forth. There are a lot of people who will listen to the פסק, but there are, unfortunately, people who do not listen. And here, you can't go to court, you can't say, \"Okay, you didn't listen to the פסק, go to court.\" Go to court, what are you going to do in court, tell him, \"The guy didn't listen to the Rebbe? He didn't He's not following the system of Lubavitch and the shlichut?\" You can't do that, that isn't going to help you. I even know one case that they takeh went to court and lost. Court said, \"The guy opened a מוסד in your area, he has a right. Legally he has no right? He has a right.\" According to shlichut The only thing is, there's a different thing: if you have a פסק דין of beit din, a פסק דין of beit din stands up in court. Not because the court cares about the beit din, because it's a there is an arbitration law. If two people agree to go to a certain person for arbitration and they say, \"We will listen,\" then legally you must listen. And if you don't listen, you go to court. So, that's one of the basis of of that you could go to court sometimes, even if the court would never פסקן such a thing. There are even cases where the court sent to the beit din. The court sent to the beit din, the court said, \"This is not for us to פסקן.\" Guy took someone to court, \"Go to your Jewish court, go to your beit din.\" But otherwise, this could stand up, but not always does it work, sometimes not. Anyway, the bottom The best thing is, don't ever come into a situation that you have to go to a din Torah. Try to stay away. It says a person who never went to a din Torah has a big maalah. Okay, let's stop here.

Just a vort on the parashah, just a short vort. The malachim came to Avraham, it says he said, \"והשענו תחת העץ.\" He told them, \"Sit under the tree, lean under the tree.\" So it says in Midrash that the Aibershter said to Avraham, \"Ah, you did such a good thing, you told them to sit under the tree, I'll give you a sachar.\" What'll be the sachar? That eventually Your children will have a mitzvah to sit under the sukkah. So the Rebbe in the Reshimot asks the she'eilah: A sukkah, sechach of a sukkah is pasul to be from a tree. Has to be not מחובר לקרקע, it has to be cut off from the ground, and here is punkt farkert, he was sitting under a tree. So how could this be a sukkah? So just bekitzur, the nekudah the Rebbe says there is like this: The chiluk between the mitzvot the avot did and the mitzvot that we do, the avot were not commanded. Mimela, whatever they did, it's basically connected to the sichah we've been learning, is all from within them. They did it because they decided to do it, so it's all part of נברא. And the Aibershter commanded us to do mitzvot, that's the Eibershter's thing, right? The inyan of a sukkah not being allowed to have sechach which is connected to the ground, because the ground represents velt. That's the velt. Our mitzvot are not connected to the velt. Our mitzvot are not part of the world, not part of the nature of the world, our mitzvot are from Eibershter. They have to be disconnected. But by the אבות, when they were not commanded yet to do the mitzvot, except מצות מילה, and Avraham's connection bichlal to the Eibershter, like we learned in the sichah, but otherwise the mitzvot they did was they were still connected to the ground. That was the mitzvot came, and the gashmiyut was still there. So that's what the Eibershter said, \"You did this, and that's a good thing, but by you it's still a tree connected to the ground. In this zechut, what will happen? Your children are going to have a mitzvah, but there you'll have a real sukkah, a sukkah where the sechach is not connected to the ground.\" And that, what does it teach, not, what does it tell us? We have to know the mitzvot that we do are so such great madregah, that it's not connected to velt, it's something that's from the Eibershter, and if you know that, then you do the mitzvot much better.