A Noble's Unusual Request: The Ingenious Solution of the Chatam Sofer

About two hundred and fifty years ago, Feyvish Optovski won a "contract" from the nobleman Battush in the town of Nedrevor, northern Hungary: he would manage the nobleman's inn, serving travelers coming through. His children would tie up their horses in the large stable and serve food, while Feyvish would serve the guests personally, selling them liquor, sundries, offering wagon repairs, and wheel greasing. Most of the income would go to the nobleman, and a certain percentage would support Feyvish. It was a significant win and a good means of livelihood.

However, as Feyvish stepped into his role, he discovered that he was required to provide meat to travelers. The nobleman supplied some kosher animals, but also pigs to satisfy the non-Jewish travelers. "For the Jews, serve only the kosher meat. For my people, give them white, tasty pork," the nobleman instructed, perhaps with good intentions. But Feyvish was troubled. He did not want to deal with pigs. The previous manager, though Jewish, lacked deep knowledge of Jewish law, but Feyvish knew it was forbidden for a Jew to conduct business with pigs or any forbidden species. What should he do?

Feyvish consulted and found a solution. He formed a partnership with a local non-Jew, stipulating that all the pig inventory belonged to the non-Jew, who would sell it. All non-kosher meat sales would be handled by the non-Jew. However, the solution hit a financial pitfall. Feyvish's profits relied on selling beef and poultry to Jews and non-Jews, who were the majority of travelers. Yet the non-Jew "took initiative," wanting to profit himself, and claimed they only had pork to sell when travelers arrived. This way he sold all his portion at a profit, while the already slaughtered beef and poultry spoiled. Refrigeration didn't exist back then, and the loss was significant. Was there another solution?

Feyvish consulted the community rabbi, Rabbi Yosef, and asked: Can I change the agreement with the non-Jew so he is not independent nor the owner of the pigs, but merely a servant obeying my commands? In this scenario, I am not conducting the sale directly, but I am the owner of the traded goods. What does Jewish law say? Rabbi Yosef, seeing the seriousness of the issue, sent the question to the Chatam Sofer, the great sage of the Jewish diaspora.

The Chatam Sofer responded in his writings (Chiddushei Chatam Sofer, Yoreh De'ah, 108): "We see that by this there is a great loss, as if gentiles come to purchase they deny having kosher meat, only offering pork which brings them profit, resulting in kosher meat going to waste, spoiling." Given the significant loss, he reasoned to find a permissible way and noted that according to the early sages, the reason for the prohibition of trading forbidden items is the risk of eating them during handling and sale. Therefore, trading in non-edible forms is permissible, like fox skins or pig tails for combs and musical strings. Hence, as long as the non-Jew conducts the sale, there is no risk of eating the pork, as the Jew isn't present.

Nonetheless, the Chatam Sofer didn't want to rely solely on interpreting the Torah's reasoning and proposed an additional measure: the non-Jew would borrow money from the Jew. Here, the Jew is owed money, and it's permissible to collect a debt with forbidden items, thereby rescuing the debt. However, legally, the pig wouldn't belong to the Jew, as Jewish law doesn't recognize money transactions as conveyance, only physical acquisition does. Since the Jew wouldn't physically acquire the pig when collecting his debt, although legally according to the gentile's law it belongs to the Jew, halachically there's no real acquisition, hence no trading prohibition.

This is but one small example of the challenges encountered during the diaspora: making a livelihood while upholding Jewish law and values.