|
 Shabbat Parashat Tetzaveh| 5763P’ninat MishpatKiddushin – What Invalidates a Witness? – II
The most contentious, invalidating factor for witnesses is p'sul machmat aveirah (invalidation based on sin). One who sins for monetary profit, whether in mitzvot between man and man or between man and G-d is certainly pasul (Sanhedrin 27a, based on Shemot 23:1). Abayei and Rava disagree whether one whose sins are rooted in theological shortcomings is invalid. This is one of the six places in Shas where we pasken like Abayei, who holds that religious shortcomings are also a cause of invalidation.
Certainly, it is hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t sinned. Is everyone pasul? In order to be pasul on the Torah level, one needs to have sinned in a matter whose punishment is malkot (flogging), which brings about the title of rasha (Rambam, Eidut 10:12). There is a concept of witnesses who are pasul for lesser sins (including rabbinic ones) on a rabbinic level. In such a case, the couple is married on the Torah level and would require a get to separate, while, on the other hand, they should have kiddushin again (Shulchan Aruch, Even Haezer 42:5) without a bracha (Beit Shmuel 42:17). However, in order to invalidate, post facto, the testimony of one whose p'sul is only rabbinic, there must have been a public pronouncement that the person was invalidated (a situation which rarely exists).
[More about the circumstances of one who is invalidated because of sin in next issue].
 Top of page Print this page Send to friend |
|
