Dina d'malkhuta dina

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Dina d'malkhuta dina (alternative spelling: dina de-malkhuta dina) (

Shulchan Arukh.[1]

The principle of dina d'malkhuta dina means that, for Jews, obedience to the civil law of the country in which they live is viewed as a religiously mandated obligation and disobedience is a transgression, according to Jewish law. This general principle is subject, however, to the qualifications that the government enacting the law must be one which is recognized by Jewish law as having legitimacy; the law must apply equitably to all the inhabitants, Jewish and non-Jewish alike; and the law must not contravene the spirit of the laws derived from the Torah even if a particular regulation may be contrary to a provision of Jewish law.[2] Whenever a state law infringes upon a prohibition (Hebrew: איסור) outlined in the Torah, or else infringes upon a permitted thing (Hebrew: היתר) in the Torah, the laws of Dina d'malkhuta dina do not apply.[3][4]

Origins

Origins of this idea come from Jeremiah's letter to the Babylonian exiles: "Seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in the peace thereof you shall have peace" (Jeremiah 29:7). In the opinion of some, for the exiled Jews their submission to gentile rulers was viewed more as a "pragmatic recognition of brute force" than anything else.[5] Yet it is surely a mark of something extraordinary in the message of Jeremiah that his advice goes beyond mere submission to necessity and requests prayer for the "peace (שָׁלוֹם)" of those among whom the exiles find themselves.[citation needed]

The first to cite a teaching under the authority of Dina d'malkhuta dina, and who applied it to Jews who live under the laws of foreign lands, was Mar Samuel (ca. 177–257), a Talmudic sage from Babylonia.[6]

destruction of the Second Temple is cited in tractate Avot (Talmud, b. Avot 3:2) as saying: "Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for fear of it, people would swallow one another alive."[7]

Within the halakha and in the Talmud

The dina

Babylonian Talmud and is a nod to Jewish acquiescence to Gentile authority, as also to Jewish secular authority.[16][17]

The term dina etc. (= "law of the land") not only applies to an Israelite or Jewish government, but also to non-Jewish governments where Jews are concerned and where the law of the government must be respected as the law of the Torah. The Talmud (Baba Batra 55a) notes that, in the case of the Persian government and its laws, title to land can be acquired by usucaption (occupancy) after forty years of occupancy by a farmer, during which years the farmer had not met up with any counter-claim or protest, although in Jewish law one gains title to property by usucaption after working it for only three years from date to date.[18] In this case, Jews living in Persia were obligated to honor the law of the land. The novelty of the Persian law allows for the Persian farmer who gained possession of the property to sell the property to others, and even if it should later be learned that the property was stolen from its original owner (who had not protested his right to the property all these years), the person who buys the property - if confronted by its rightful owner who now lays claim to the property and demands that restitution be made - is not required to relinquish the property under Persian law,[18] something which stands contrary to Jewish law (when the rightful owner has not despaired of retrieving his lost property), although valid by virtue of Dina d'malkhuta dina. Only in such places where Jewish law prevails would the original owner, in such cases, regain access to his stolen property, seeing that stolen property cannot be acquired by way of usucaption. Land purchased by a Jew from a non-Jew, the non-Jew must authenticate its purchase by showing a legal deed of title to the property.[19][18]

Application of the dina to Jews

While the majority of rabbis hold that Dina d'malkhuta dina applies to, both, Jewish and non-Jewish governments,

Baba Bathra 55a, Rashi s.v. טסקא‎), the rule of Dina d'malkhuta dina applies in their case, that is, only to non-Jewish kingdoms (forms of government) outside of the Land of Israel, but does not apply to Jewish kings and governors within the Land of Israel.[22] According to Maimonides, the government of any country has the authority to levy a land-tax upon its subjects, and those who default in its payment could have their property confiscated from them, or either mortgaged by mortgagers until payment has been made.[23]

The rabbis required "minimal justice" from non-Jewish rulers, as such for the dina to be accepted there were two stipulations. These stipulations were that laws had to be both explicit and universal, to safeguard Jews from gentile laws that could potentially be used against them.[5]

Conditions of dina in civil and religious matters

The Rabbis created terms that could be easily used and identified for highlighting the jurisdiction of the dina (= "law of the land"), these mamona (civil and economic matters) were places where the dina could legitimately supersede even Torah law, and the isura (forbidden or religious matters) that the gentile laws could not be heeded against the Torah.[5]

The Talmud (Baba Metzia 28b) relates a story about a point in time when the Persian government made it a law that any money found by one of its citizens automatically becomes property of the state. Rabbi Ammi and a colleague of his found lost money which its owners had, ostensibly, despaired of ever retrieving. The same rabbi knew the oral teaching which taught that he that finds lost money, where there is no indication or sign showing to whom it originally belonged and where its owner had despaired of retrieving the lost money, its finder becomes its new and lawful owner. Therefore, in total reliance on this oral teaching, he gave instruction not to relinquish the money they had found, nor give it to the Government. Since the Persian law contravened that of common Jewish law, the rabbi was able to ignore it, so long as he did not get caught in the act.

Medieval halakhists developed two approaches to the dina rule. First was the "contractual" theory where the laws of the ruling king are binding upon the subjects of the realm because they had agreed in advance to accept the king's laws.

Shulchan Arukh, the leading halakhic decisors (poskim), are the main proponents for this theory.[16]
Second is the "ownership" theory, where the Jews recognize the king's law as the land is his personal possession; this theory is supported by the Talmudic commentators (Ran and Tosafos)

Application to modern Israel

In regards to modern Israel, there are those who allege that the Talmud cites the dina as applying only upon the laws of a Gentile government, while the sovereignty of a Jewish king, as applicable to the dina, is never cited in the Talmud. In the argument supporting the dina's applicability to the modern Jewish state, Tenbitsky, a commentator on this subject, presents the principle of niḥa lehū (Hebrew: ניחא להו), the Jewish community's acquiescence to governmental power for the sake of public order. Using this logic, the niḥa lehū can be applied to any legitimate governmental purposes such as taxes for national defense, and, therefore, the dina can be applied to a Jewish sovereign, as the necessary power cannot be denied as per niḥa lehū. However, under the "ownership theory" the dina cannot be applied to a Jewish sovereign in the land of Israel as all Jews own the land together, therefore a Jewish king or government, an equal landowner, would not be able to expel others from their domain.[16]

Rabbinic courts vs. secular-state laws

Israel's inheritance laws are a direct carry-over from the

Last Will, or were his only offspring). According to the same Mosaic law, the firstborn of his sons receives a double portion of the divided inheritance.[24]

Since

rabbinic courts are unable to bypass the secular-law of the state, nor can they cancel the biblical laws, they circumvent the issue by encouraging the head of the family to write out a Last Will before his death, in which case, the father is able to bequeath a hefty portion of the inheritance of his estate to his eldest son. Conversely, if there was no Last Will made by the father before his death, when brothers and sisters come before a rabbinic court of law to settle their inheritance, the court, before issuing an Inheritance Order (Hebrew: צו ירושה), endeavors to convince the eldest son to willingly give-up part of his inheritance so that his sister(s) may receive a portion of the same, all having given their written consent in advance to the conditions, in which case, the court views the divided inheritance as a "gift," whilst the secular laws of the state have not been compromised.[25]

See also

Further reading

  • Schachter, Herschel (1984). "`Dina De'malchusa Dina`: Secular Laws as a Religious Obligation". In Cohen, Alfred S. (ed.). Halacha and Contemporary Society. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. pp. 85–114.
    ISBN 9780881250428
    .

References
  1. ^ Emanuel B. Quint A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law
  2. ISBN 9780910818131
    .
  3. OCLC 14813103
    .
  4. OCLC 54817857
    . (reprinted from 1922 and 1938 editions of the Hebrew Publishing Co., New York)
  5. ^ a b c Menachem, Lorberbaum, ed. (2000). The Jewish Political Tradition. Vol. 1–Authority. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 431–434.
  6. JSTOR 4466899
    .
  7. ISBN 9789653010673
    .
  8. JSTOR 4466899
    .
  9. Shulhan Arukh
    (Hoshen Mishpat § 369:6).
  10. Babylonian Talmud
    (Nedarim 28a)
  11. Mishne Torah
    (Hil. Zekhiyya u'matanah 1:15)
  12. Mishne Torah
    (Hil. Melakhim, ch. 4), see the commentaries there, especially the Commentary of Radbaz.
  13. ^ Cf. Zoldan, Yehuda [in Hebrew] (2019). "The king breaks through [a private fence] to pave a road – By the man, who is the son of Perez (מלך פורץ לו דרך: על יד איש בן פרצי)". Asif - Talmud and Halacha (Yearbook of the Hesder Yeshivas Association) (in Hebrew). 6. Yeshivat Hesder: 147–173., who wrote: "The Mishnah (Sanhedrin, chapter 2) treats on the laws governing the High Priest (ibid. 2:1), and in those matters touching the king (ibid. 2:2–5). One of these oral teachings (ibid. 2:4) treats on the issue of war that is led by a king:
    He may send forth [the people] to a war waged of free choice by the decision of the court of one and seventy. He may break through [the private domain of any man] to make himself a road and none may protest against him. The king's road has no prescribed measure. All the people may plunder [the effects of the enemy] and they give it to him (i.e. the king), and he first takes his portion... The expressions, 'the king's road,' as also, 'he may break through to make himself a road,' do not merely mean the right to make inroads in territories belonging to private individuals, but rather that he has the authority to inflict damage to private property for the good and successful prosecution of the war, and that, mind you, without limitation" (END QUOTE).
  14. Mishne Torah
    (Hil. Gezelah we-Avedah 5:14)
  15. Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 10b; Mishnah
    Gittin 1:5)
  16. ^
    JSTOR 1396177
    .
  17. ^ Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and the Midrashic Literature (2nd edition), New York 2006, p. 301
  18. ^
    Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 55a
    , Rashi, s.v. דאריסא דפרסאי ארבעין שנין‎
  19. Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 35b
    , note 13)
  20. OCLC 741081810
    ., s.v. Nedarim 3:3
  21. OCLC 181631040
    ., Nedarim 28a, s.v. כבר ביארנו. Quote: "We have already explained in multiple places that Dina d'malkhuta dina does not apply except in those matters which the king makes a fixed law by way of affecting the general populace, rather than [simply] innovating something that applies to an individual, in a specific manner. All, therefore, which he has done by way of affecting the general populace becomes a bona fide law, and it is forbidden to ignore it, or to circumvent it, as one who engages completely in theft. As for this matter, there is no difference between the kings of Israel and the kings of the nations of the world."
  22. Terumah unto the priestly stock, even though, in actuality, he made no such vow nor designation. Shemuel (the amora) and Rabbi Yannai, who explained the sense of the same Mishnah, stated that the Mishnah refers to a case where the tax-collector was exacting more than what the law demanded of him, or was an impostor, in which case it was permissible to evade him by means of deception, especially since if he refused to pay the tax-collector he put himself in immediate danger (Jerusalem Talmud
    , ibid.).
  23. OCLC 122758200., cf. Baba Bathra 55a
    , Rashi s.v. טסקא‎
  24. Mishne Torah
    (Hil. Nahalot 2:1)
  25. OCLC 19156540
    .

External links
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