Parshat Mishpatim
Ideally, Jews operate their businesses according to halachah, just as much as their more obviously mitzvah lives. Were/when we find ourselves back in that preferred situation, we will document transactions with shetarot. Let’s spend one more discussion thinking about how the dating of those documents works or doesn’t work.
Not Wrong Enough
Last time we saw that if the date and the day of the week on a shetar don’t match—Wednesday the 21st, when Wednesday was the twentieth--we trust the day of the week more than the day of the month, think an error about it less likely.
Aruch HaShulchan Choshen Mishpat 43;6-8 considers another clear mismatch, when a shetar giving a gift referred to a man’s son-in-law and was dated to year 57, when the son-in-law only entered the family in year 58. Rashba invalidated the shetar for being pre-dated, and did not think the obvious error could save it, because the son-in-law’s wedding date is not the kind of information well enough known to allow for a similar correction. (Notice that in this instance, he is treating a shetar matanah, a document detailing a gift, the same as a shetar on a loan). Sema thought having had an important Jew sign it would also not be enough.
Independent Verification Reduces the Witnesses’ Freedom
Rashba did allow rewriting the shetar, with the correct year, as long as we have no other means to identify the
