Resources for Kesubos 105
1. The גמרא quotes the name of the two דייני גזרות, one of which was חנן בן אבישלום. תוספות in ד"ה שני quotes in the name of רבינו תם that this must be the correct spelling of his father’s name since if it was really אבשלום the his father wouldn’t have been allowed to be named that since שם רשעים ירקב mandates that we don’t name people the same name as a רשע and אבשלום was known to be a רשע. The הפלאה asks how do we know that there wasn’t some other אבשלום who was a צדיק? He answers that he thinks ר"ת agrees that you don’t have to worry about naming a child a common name even if there is a רשע by that name since there are probably lots of צדיקים with that same name. The issue is that אבשלום is an unusual name (שם פּלאי) and if the name is famous for being attached to a רשע since its an unusual name then you cant use that name. We find a similar concept to the this in הלכות כבוד רבו that if your father or Rebbe have an unusual name then you can’t even call out to your friend with the same name since people will think you are calling your father or Rebbe by his name. He also mentions this is true about calling out the names of מלאכים. This is why when מנוח asked the מלאך what his name was he responded “למה זה תשאל לשמי והוא פּלאי” which means his name was unusual so he could not say the name anyway.
2. The גמרא says that a דיין is not allowed to accept a bribe even if he takes payments from both sides, and even if it isn’t given as a bribe but rather as a salary. What is the issue with getting paid by both parties? The פּני יהושע says in ד"ה והיכי that really there is no issue with taking money from both בעצם. Its just a type of סייג דאורייתא lest someone come to take a real bribe. The מאירי says that it is real שוחד and the issue is that if he takes a payment from both sides then he wont want to hurt either side and will offer a פּשרה instead of the actual דין. Interestingly, Rav Moshe ז"ל in אגרות משה in חושן משפּט חלק ב סימן כ"ו says the exact opposite! He says that if both litigants don’t pay then the Rav may be מסופּק what the הלכה is and say they need to do פּשרה, but if he gets paid for his טירחא then they will pressure to him work till he figures out the שורת הדין (which each one is certain is on his side) and the Rav will end up paskening not what he would have. Even though one would think this would be acceptable since all he did was work to get the right psak, Rav Moshes says any change in pask based on a taking money is called שוחד.
3. There is a fascinating discussion in the poskim as to whether you can give שוחד to a נכרי judge. The reason you would think you could not is that one of the שבע מצוות בני נח is דינים and the רמב"ן says in בראשית ל"ד פּסוק י"ג that נכרים need to set up courts that follow the Torah. If so, if לא תקח שוחד is an issue for us it is an issue for them. Therefore, offering them a bribe would be a violation of לפני עור. The תומים in סימן ט אות א discusses this and brings the חוות יאיר who he says discussed it but didn’t have a clear מסקנא but the תומים notes that the common practice was to allow it. The תומים explains a יסוד in the פּסול שוחד: he says it makes a person a קרוב to the בעל דין and a קרוב is פּסול לדון. However, a נכרי is allowed to be a דיין for his son as there is no פּסול קורבה by a גוי. In fact, he brings a תשובות הב"ח that says he can even act as a דיין on his own things and there is no greater שוחד than that. Therefore, if the פּסול קורבה doesn’t apply to נכרים then the איסור שוחד doesn’t apply either and one could give the judge a שוחד.
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