114. Placing an Offender Under a Ban

Talmud Torah 6:14

All of the above (in halacha 6:13) applies only when a someone was excommunicated for treating a Torah scholar disrespectfully. If a person was excommunicated for another reason, even if the ban was placed by the lowest possible person, then the nasi and every other Jew are all required to observe the ban until the offender repents and the ban is lifted.

A person can be excommunicated for 24 reasons: (1) disgracing a Torah scholar, even after his death; (2) disgracing a messenger of the court; (3) calling his friend a slave; (4) failure to appear before a court when ordered; (5) treating even a single point of rabbinic law disrespectfully; it goes without saying that this also applies to Torah law; (6) refusal to follow the rulings of a court (until he complies); (7) possessing something that can cause injury, like a dangerous dog or a broken ladder (until the hazard is removed); (8) selling land to an idolator (until he accepts responsibility for any damages that the idolator may cause his Jewish neighbor); (9) testifying against a fellow Jew in a secular court so that he has to pay money that Torah law would not require him to pay (until he repays what he cost him); (10) a butcher who is a kohein (priest) who does not give the priestly portions to a different kohein (until he does so); (11) someone who violates the second Festival day outside of Israel, even though these days were only established via minhag*; (12) performing labor past noon on the day before Passover; (13) taking God's name in vain or taking an oath unnecessarily; (14) causing the masses to desecrate God's Name; (15) causing the masses to eat sacrifices outside their proper locations; (16) calculating the years or fixing the new month outside of Israel; (17) misleading a person (metaphorically “placing a stumbling block before a blind person”); (18) preventing the masses from performing a mitzvah; (19) a butcher selling non-kosher meat; (20) a butcher not inspecting his knife in front of a scholar; (21) intentionally inducing an erection; (22) a couple who divorces then enters into a business arrangement that forces them to interact; (23) a scholar whose reputation is unseemly; (24) excommunicating another person who doesn’t deserve it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Minhag” is normally translated as “custom” but minhagim are actually a binding form of halacha. The term actually reflects a law’s origin and does not suggest that it is optional.

Talmud Torah 7:1

If a noted scholar, the nasi, or the av beis din acts in a disgraceful manner, they should not be publicly placed under a ban unless their deeds are as bad as those of Jeroboam ben Nevat and his colleagues (in the book of I Kings). However, if he commits other sins, he should be lashed in private as per Hosea 4:5, “You will stumble by day and the prophet will stumble with you at night.” This means that even though he may stumble, he should be covered as by night. Such a wayward scholar is told to protect his honor and stay home. Similarly, whenever a Torah scholar must be placed under a ban, the court is not permitted to act hastily in pronouncing the ban; they should try to avoid the matter. The pious of the Sages were proud that they never participated in placing a ban on a Torah scholar. Even so, they would participate in sentencing a wayward scholar to the penalty of lashes, even those issued rabbinically for being rebellious.