Parshas Balak 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
עבודה זרה דף כא.
"לא תחנם - לא תתן להם חנייה בקרקע"
The Braisa (כ.) says, the לאו of לא תחנם also prohibits a Yid from giving a גוי a holding (חנייה) in the קרקע of א"י. The Mishnah (כא) brings a מחלוקת between ר' מאיר and ר' יוסי regarding what may be sold or rented to גוים and clarifies: even when it is permitted to rent a premises to a גוי, we may only rent to them a בית that is used for storage, but not a residential house for living purposes. This is because we are concerned that the גוי will bring in a ע"ז. This would cause the Yid to be עובר the לאו of, "ולא תביא תועבה אל ביתך". But since it was not prevalent to bring ע"ז into a storage house we weren’t גוזר on them. [ד"ה אף] תוס' asks: what is the היתר that we rely on בזמן הזה to rent homes to גוים for living purposes? תוס' brings רבינו חיים כהן who says the ירושלמי is מדייק that where it is permitted to sell בתים to גויים, which is חוץ לארץ, it is מותר to also rent to them. We see clearly that it is מותר to rent a בית דירה to a גוי in חוץ לארץ. He says the reason is, that only homes we own in א"י are considered "ביתך", so one can be עובר, ולא תביא תועבה אל ביתך. But our homes in חוץ לארץ are not considered "ביתך".
Tosfos says there are many קשיות on this explanation. Firstly, even those that hold אין קנין לגוי בא"י, but in חוץ לארץ יש קנין. Accordingly, this would result in a Yid being גרוע to a גוי because he isn’t קונה in חוץ לארץ but a גוי is and this is not מסתבר. Tosfos brings the ר"י that also asks: By the חיוב מזוזה it also says "ביתך", so one should not have to place a mezuzah on a בית בחוץ לארץ? The ר"י ultimately says the ראיה that ר' חיים brings from ירושלמי is good, but the reason of the ירושלמי isn’t because of ביתך. Tosfos quotes הר"ר אלחנן that explains: the issur of לא תביא is referring only to a בית של ישראל that the Yid lives in. Similar to מזוזה that is applicable only to the house of a Yid that he lives in (חובת הדר). So, a rented apartment to a עכו"ם is not included in the לאו of לא תביא אל ביתך. The [ס' כב] רא"ש explains: מדאורייתא the לאו of לא תביא is only on a ישראל bringing ע"ז into his house. The רבנן were גוזר not to rent to a עכו"ם because he might bring ע"ז into a Jewish owned home. Therefore, they were only מתקן on a בית דירה where they were נוהג to bring in ע"ז בקביעות. But in storehouses where it is not brought in בקביעות, they were מתיר. So too, בזמן הזה, since גוים are not נוהג to bring in ע"ז, only in times of a חולה, it is מותר.
The רא"ש gives another reason להתיר: even though we hold שכירות לא קניא, but the אומות העולם hold it is קונה and therefore it is similar to a מכר. This is evident from their law that states, even if the landlords own house falls down and he needs a place for himself, he may not evict a tenant mid-lease. So, we see that a rental is דומה למכר, which is מותר בחוץ לארץ. הגהות אשר"י brings רבינו אפרים ברבי יצחק who says: If so, this works in the reverse direction as well. If a Yid rents from a Goy and the Goy left his ע"ז in the apartment, since שכירות is דומה למכר and it’s considered the Yid’s house, the Yid must remove the ע"ז in order not to be oiver לא תביא. The הגהות אשר"י says this is לא נהירא, but since נפק מפומיה דגאון, it is טוב ליזהר.