חושן משפט ל"ד

Witnesses Disqualified Due to Sin. 35 Seifim: Paragraph 1- A wicked person is disqualified from testifying. Even a valid witnesses that knows his colleague is wicked, but the judges are unaware, is prohibited from testifying with him, even though the testimony is accurate. All the more so in a case where a valid witness has testimony for a party and he knows that his co-witness is a false witness, is he prohibited from testifying with him.

2. Who is considered wicked? One who violates a prohibition that is deserving of lashes. All the more so in a case where he is deserving of court-prescribed death. It does not matter if he violated it out of desire or out of spite. If one violated a prohibition that is not deserving of lashes, he is rabbinically disqualified from testifying.

3. If the sin he violated was rabbinical, he is rabbinically disqualified. There are those that say that one is only disqualified for a rabbinical sin that was done because of desire of money.

4. Those that have a buried a body on the first day of Yom Tov are able to testify, even if a nidui was placed on them and they repeated the violation because they believe they are doing a mitzvah and the nidui was simply for atonement purposes. The same applies to any prohibition where we are able to say that he violated it out of error. See earlier Siman 24. One who lifts his hand to strike his friend is rabbinically disqualified from testifying.

5. One who violates an oath, whether it was an oath in vain, a false oath on a monetary matter or an oath of commitment, is disqualified from testifying, even if he merely violated a cherem that the public placed on him. There are those that say that he is only disqualified if he violated an oath he made regarding an event in the past because at the time of the oath it was a lie, but an oath for a matter in the future, such as I will or will not eat this item, would not disqualify him. If witnesses testify on someone that he violated his oath, he is not believed to say he is still valid because the violation was a mistake or was done under duress.

6. If a butcher produces a neveilah or treifah animal, he is disqualified from testifying. See Yoreh Deah Siman 119 where this matter is explained.

7. Thieves and robbers are disqualified from testifying from the time of the theft or robbery until they repent, even if they returned the item. See earlier Siman 29. One who divvies up with a thief is not disqualified from testifying. See later Siman 92 regarding at what point a guardian who denies receiving a deposit is disqualified.

8. A witness who was impeached, even on a monetary case where he reimbursed the party, is biblically disqualified from all testimonies. At what point is he disqualified? From the time he testified in court, notwithstanding the fact that he wasn’t impeached until a later date.

10. One who lends with interest is disqualified from testifying. Both the lender and borrower are disqualified. If it was literal interest, they are biblically disqualified. If it was rabbinical interest, they are rabbinically disqualified. There are those that say the only the lender, and not the borrower, would be disqualified if lending with avak ribbis.

11. One who lends money of orphans out with interest, even literal interest, would not be disqualified from testifying because he thinks he is doing a mitzvah by having the orphan’s property turn a profit.