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Nine new religious 'monetary courts' offer alternative to civil system

Ilan Aharoni, an air-conditioner installer from Jerusalem, got into trouble about a year ago after a man in Beit Shemesh asked him to install a new motor in his home air conditioner. Since the customer had purchased the motor himself, Aharoni made it clear that he would be responsible for the warranty on the installation. The customer agreed. The motor, however, stopped working a few minutes after it was installed and the customer refused to pay for the labor. He did not stop there: He called in another technician to move the entire air conditioner to another location in his home, after which the motor began working again. That reinforced his refusal to pay Aharoni, who did not have the patience to sue him for a bill of a few hundred shekels.

Aharoni assumed he would just have to absorb the loss, but a friend told him about a religious court for monetary matters that had been established recently in Beit Shemesh. Aharoni submitted his suit to the court and after a single session, he says the court recommended that the customer pay him NIS 600 of the NIS 900 he had demanded. Since a formal verdict had not been handed down, the defendant asked for another hearing. It ended quickly, with a ruling ordering him to pay NIS 800.

Aharoni says he did not hesitate to turn to the court, even though he is not religiously observant.

"I have no faith in the civil law system. My car was stolen recently. I went to the police within minutes. Instead of trying to chase the thief, they told me to file a complaint. And in the courts you can wait for years before getting a verdict. So I was happy there was the option of going to another system, and I wasn't disappointed," Aharoni related.

Aharoni is exactly what Rabbi Attorney Moshe Be'eri, the man behind the Beit Shemesh court and eight similar ones around the country, had in mind. Be'eri, who also has a J.D. degree, decided about a year ago to create monetary courts throughout the country as an alternative to the civil courts system. Be'eri's original motivation is connected to his religious identity: "I want to destroy the stigma surrounding rabbis and rabbinical judges in Israel, and as an expert in Jewish law, I believe it has answers to all the problems that arise, even today, and there's no reason not to take advantage of it."

Be'eri hopes to attract both the religious and non-religious publics. "We promise to arrive at a ruling within three months, or six months at the most, with the agreement of the parties. We also try to persuade the litigants to avoid using lawyers, since this generally prolongs the process and makes it more expensive," Be'eri says.

Last week Be'eri celebrated a twofold achievement at a conference in Jerusalem: the establishment of the ninth court, in Shoham, and the creation of Gazit, a union of all nine courts. He explains: "This past year, each court operated as an independent unit. The joint framework will make it possible to set common guidelines based on religious law as well as to refer a person from anywhere in the country to the closest court."

There were monetary courts before Be'eri's initiative, but they did not involve a nationwide chain with common organizational guidelines, a preference for dayanim (religious judges) with a Zionist perspective and broad education, as well as strict criteria for their appointment. ("In the court established in the past, anyone well-versed in Jewish law could serve as a dayan. We only appoint people who are certified as dayanim.")

The new courts must be distinguished from the existing religious divorce courts. Not only are these not included in the new framework, but according to a High Court of Justice ruling of a few months ago, the divorce courts are specifically enjoined from dealing with monetary matters on the grounds that they are not authorized to do so. A few rabbis and religious politicians have sponsored an amendment that would permit the existing religious courts to rule on monetary issues, but Rabbi Benyahu Bruner, head of Gazit's court in Safed, does not fear competition from this quarter. "In my opinion, most of those with monetary suits will not want to wait in court together with couples in the midst of divorce proceedings," Bruner said. "In any event, my work at Gazit is as a volunteer for a few hours a week, so there's no threat to my livelihood."

Noahide News Part 610