by Rabbi Yair Hoffman, for 5tjt.com You came home late. Generally, in New York, when you come home late there is literally no parking within two blocks of your home. But Boruch Hashem, you are one of the lucky ones. You have a driveway. You turn onto your block and, and, wait. What is this?? Someone is blocking your driveway! The unmitigated Chutzpah of it all. The anger within you builds up and culminates in an intense and overwhelming desire to let air out of the offender’s tire. This will create extraordinary difficulties for him, but the rationale behind it is that the driver would prefer air being let out of his tire than to being towed. What is the halacha here? THE DRIVER IS A THIEF Before we get to the issue of the actual “deflating ”, it must be noted that parking illegally is technically considered trespassing, which is a form of actual theft. How do we define trespassing? From the perspective of American law, trespassing is the act of illegally going onto somebody else’s property without permission, which could just be a civil law tort (allowing the owner to sue for damages), or it could be a criminal matter. <<< Only $1430 Left To Help Marry Off a Baal Teshuvah Couple!>>> https://thechesedfund.com/zechornilah/weddingoftwobaaleiteshuva THE HALACHA What exactly is the halachic violation? The violation is actually that of stealing. The Talmud (Bava Basra 88a) records a debate between Rabbi Yehudah and the Sages as to whether borrowing an item without permission renders a person a gazlan, a thief, or whether he simply has the status of a borrower. Rabbi Yehudah maintains that he does not have the halachic status of a thief, while the Sages maintain that he does. The Rif and the Rambam both rule in accordance with the Sages-that he is considered a thief. Indeed, this is also the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch in four different places (C.M. 292:1, 308:7, 359:5, 363:5). Is the “considered a thief” designation applicable in all cases? Generally speaking, borrowing an item has a value associated with it. In the case of trespassing, there may be no particular value per se in setting foot on the person’s property, or in parking improperly. While this may be the case, the Chazon Ish (B.K. 20:5) writes that the prohibition of sho’el shelo mida’as (one who borrows without permission) applies even when the item is not something that generally has a market value, and even if the value is less than that of a perutah. How do we know that borrowing without permission also applies to being on someone’s land, or parking illegally? Maybe, it can be argued that in order to “borrow,” you have to physically take an object; here, you are just taking up space on someone’s land. THE PROOF The Rashbam in Bava Basra 57b discusses a case of a piece of property owned by two partners. The Rashbam writes that we are lenient and assume that one partner allows the other to place his animals on the land even without explicitly giving permission. In such a case, he would not be considered a sho’el shelo mida’as since they, in general, are partners, and would let the other do what he wants with their property. According to the Rashbam, therefore, when […]

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