Sunday, July 26, 2009

Informing on Others to a Just Government


Rabbi Michael J. Broyde - [page 43-45 Journal of Halacha]

5. A Jew is knowingly and intentionally cheating on his United States taxes. May one inform on him to the Internal Revenue Service? According to the view of Rabbi Waldenberg, such conduct government.is permitted because informing is not wrong to a just government. According to Rabbi Batzri, such informing is prohibited and makes the informer a pursuer, as it will land the tax cheater in jail, and that is prohibited. According to Rabbi Wosner, although such conduct is not informing, it is prohibited under the rubric of doing gratuitous harm to another,and would only be permitted when the informer stands to benefit concretely from the arrest,94 or when it was one's job to detect such people or when being silent leads to desecration of G-d's name or informing leads to a sanctification of G-d's name, in which case informing is mandatory.95 According to Rabbi Feinstein, such informing is prohibited and makes the informer a pursuer (unless this conduct is one's job, and if he did not do it, someone else would and the person would be detected

94. Such as when the government knows about the cheating and actually suspects the informant of being the cheater. 95. See Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 266:1. 96. Rabbi Shmelkes' view is hard to determine. Cheating Medicaid or Medicare would seem to be no different than cheating on taxes. Consider a simple case of a doctor who is in a medical practice with another doctor who is forging the first doctor's signature on Medicare reimbursement forms; may the first doctor inform on the second? This case is relatively simple as informing is the only certain way the first doctor can preserve his own Medicare rights. He is informing for direct personal benefit, and thus such conduct would be permitted, even more so since Medicare fraud only very rarely results in jail sentences. A much harder hypothetical involves a Jew who is involved in non-violent criminal activity with a group of Jews and who – alone – is caught by the police. The other members of the criminal ring are not caught and their identities are still unknown. The District Attorney offers this defendant a deal, in which if he reveals the identity of his fellow criminals he will serve no jail time. Otherwise, a full penalty will be imposed. While a full analysis of this matter is quite complex, it is clear that one who informs out of fear of being punished himself anyway).is not generally deemed an informer; Choshen Mishpat 388:2. However, many authorities deem such conduct a sin; see Pitchai Choshen volume 5 Chapter 4, notes 31 and 32 and Chapter 12, paragraph 5 and 27. According to the view of Rabbi Waldenberg, such conduct is permitted as informing is not wrong in a just government. According to Rabbi Batzri, this conduct saves one's life, while endangering the life of others, and is wrong. According to Rabbi Wosner's approach, if this is an area where the authority of the secular law is valid in the eyes of Jewish law, such conduct is permitted. According to Rabbi Feinstein, such informing is prohibited and perhaps even makes the informer a pursuer.

4 comments:

  1. It seems clear that in a country like the United States or Canada, justice is "officially" colour and ethnic blind. Thus one Jew informing on another to the authorities is really one Canadian/American informing on another because their Judaism has nothing to do with the situation.
    The question is: does a citizen have an obligation to inform in the first place? And for which crimes?
    Like "Hi, my friend Fishel was speeding on the interstate last week" vs "Hi, my friend Fishel is illegal shipping donated organs out of the country."

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  2. What is Rav Moshe's alternative? If you can't inform the authorities, who will deal with the crime? A beis din? But a beis has no ability to deal with it. So what's the solution? You can't have a society that openly allows fraud and cirminal activity to go on.

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  3. why are you quoting this [...] ask him how to explain ny ewquitable distribution law and he will give you an absolute distortion and fabrication of dina de'malchusah dinah.

    you can delete me all you like but he is a sickening [...]. all the rishonim and achronim are against him!

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  4. Critic said...

    you can delete me all you like but he is a sickening [...]. all the rishonim and achronim are against him!
    =================
    From what I have seen he is accurately quoting sources. He is quite an accomplished talmid chachom. I don't agree with all his conclusions - but if you want to make these types of assertions please prove your point. If you want to point out where all the rishonim and achronim are against him it would be appreciated. Loudmouth boorish rants are not helpful

    ReplyDelete

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