Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman April 17, 2026 Our previous article cited…
Doing Fine, Part II: Should the Rich Pay Higher Penalties?
Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman
October 9, 2025
Our previous article discussed the korban oleh veyoreid, the classic example of an obligation imposed on a sinner that takes into account his financial means. In this article, we discuss later halachic frameworks of monetary obligations as kaparah that, similar to the European model we discussed, establish baseline obligations that increase with wealth.
Chatas-Equivalent Donation
The Maharam (R’ Meir) of Rutenburg issued at least two different prescriptions for the atonement of serious sins committed beshogeig (inadvertently) today.[1]
First psak: chillul Shabbos beshogeig
If a person was mechallel Shabbos beshogeig, he should give five dinar halish to tzedakah, and with this he will obtain kaparah. Because when the Bais Hamikdash stood he would have been obligated in a chatas, and if one purchased a chatas for a danka (a “sixth” of the Gemara’s dinar) he fulfills his obligation,[2] and this amounts to three halish. But the ideal fulfillment of the mitzvah is with a sela, as the Gemara says in Krisus, and that amounts to five halish. And it is also good that he should fast baha”b (Monday, Thursday, and Monday).[3]
(These valuations of a sela and a danka at five and three halish respectively are quite baffling, because the Gemara’s sela is four dinar, and thus equal to 24 danka. Perhaps the text of the Maharam’s teshuvah is corrupted, but it should be noted that this same basic ruling appears in at least two versions in two independent collections of the Maharam’s rulings, and the numbers are the same in both.)
The Gemara actually mentions a different course of action for a mechallel Shabbos beshogeig today:
R’ Nosson says: R’ Yishma’el ben Elisha read by lamplight and did tilt the lamp, and he wrote in his notebook: “I, Yishma’el ben Elisha, read by lamplight and tilted the lamp on Shabbos. When the Bais Hamikdash will be rebuilt, I will bring a fat chatas.”[4]
A third approach to satisfying an obligation to bring a chatas today emerges from another Gemara:
Reish Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This is the law of the olah, of the mincha, of the chatas, and of the asham”? Whoever engages in the study of the Torah is considered as if he offered an olah, a mincha, a chatas, and an asham.
…Rather, Rava said: Whoever engages in the study of the Torah needs neither an olah nor a mincha nor a chatas nor an asham.
R’ Yitzchak said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This is the law of the chatas; this is the law of the asham”? Whoever engages in the study of the Torah of the chatas is considered as if he offered a chatas; whoever engages in the study of the Torah of the asham is considered as if he offered an asham.[5]
Acharonim discuss the relationship between these two Gemaros,[6] but it is surprising that the Maharam mentions neither.[7]
Second psak: nidah beshogeig
The Mordechai reports a rather different ruling of the Maharam, regarding a violation of nidah beshogeig: The Maharam prescribed a course of fasts for the husband and added: “And if he cannot fast, he should give 12 pshitim to tzedakah.”[8]
It is unclear why for Shabbos, the Maharam prescribes giving the value of a chatas and makes no mention of fasting, but for nidah, he prescribes fasting or tzedakah but makes no mention of giving the value of a chatas.
The Trumas Hadeshen combines both of the Maharam’s prescriptions in a teshuvah about people who had been mechallel Shabbos: He suggests fasting or tzedakah as per the Maharam on nidah, as well as tzedakah “in the amount of a chatas, a danka, which the Maharam valued at 18 pshitim.”[9] (It is unclear what the Trumas Hadeshen’s source is for this latter point. As noted, the Maharam’s first psak was to give a sela—not a danka—in lieu of a chatas, and makes no mention of pshitim; his second psak says nothing about money in lieu of a chatas; and neither says anything about 18 pshitim.)[10]
In Hilchos Shabbos, the Rama cites the Trumas Hadeshen that a mechallel Shabbos beshogeig should fast or give 12 pshitim, and he should additionally give 18 pshitim in lieu of a chatas.[11] But in Hilchos Nidah, he cites the Maharam that for nidah beshogeig one should fast or give tzedakah, and like that Maharam, he says nothing about giving the value of a chatas.[12]
Moreover, instead of citing the Trumas Hadeshen’s fixed pshitim figures, the Rama rules: “If he cannot fast, he should redeem each fast day with money given to tzedakah, in proportion to the money that he has, for a wealthy individual should give a little more (yoseir ketzas) than a pauper, and we should be stringent regarding his teshuvah.”
The Magein Avraham asserts a similar qualification of the Rama’s psak in Hilchos Shabbos that one may give twelve pshitim in lieu of fasting:
But nevertheless it seems to me that a rich man should give in accordance with his wealth, because the reason (for the dispensation to give tzedakah in lieu of fasting) is that the pain of payment is equal to the pain of fasting, and for a rich man, one hundred maneh (maneh=100 dinar) is like a prutah (prutah=1/192 dinar) for a pauper.[13]
The Magein Avraham actually seems to go much further than the Rama. While the Rama says a rich man should give “a little more” than a pauper, the Magein Avraham implies a much greater differential, as 100 maneh is almost two million prutos.[14]
[1]See Ahalei Yaakov (Rav Farbstein) Vayikra from p. 156 for an extensive discussion of these rulings and the relevant halachic literature.
[2]Zvachim 48a. The Maharam seems to take the Gemara at face value to mean that a chatas must be worth at least a danka; but Rashi and Tosfos there explain that the Gemara’s reference to a danka is lav davka and connotes an arbitrarily small amount.
[3]Shu”t Maharam dfus Lemberg siman 431, and also in Tashbeitz (Katan) siman 68 with minor differences.
[6]See R’ Asher Weiss, Amiras Parshiyos Hakorbanos Bechol Yom os 7 (and the earlier sources cited there); here; and here.
[7]See Mishnah Brurah siman 334 s.k. 80.
[8]Mordechai Shvuos remez 754, cited in Bais Yosef Y.D. end of siman 185.
[9]Trumas Hadeshen psakim uchsavim (cheilek 2) siman 60 (printed edition), cited in Darchei Moshe O.C. end of siman 334 os 8.
The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (O.C. siman 334 se’if 28), in his codification of this ruling of the Trumas Hadeshen, writes: “He should give eighteen pshitim to charity in lieu of a chatas, if he was obligated in one, and that is the amount of a sela of the Torah.” The Shulchan Aruch HaRav thus replaces the value of danka found in the Trumas Hadeshen with the value of sela found in our version of the Maharam’s teshuvah, but puzzlingly keeps the figure of eighteen pshitim given by the Trumas Hadeshen, which the latter gave as the value of a danka!
[10]Additionally, our version of the Maharam’s psak for nidah prescribes fasting once a week from 10 Iyar (the date of the incident) until Rosh Hashanah, which works out to about 20 fast days in total, while the Trumas Hadeshen, apparently based on the Maharam, prescribes fasting for 40 days, “e.g., from 10 Iyar until Rosh Hashanah.” He later cites from the Re’eim to fast two days a week until reaching 40 days, which he equates with the Maharam’s psak: “And this number equals precisely the period that the Maharam wrote, from 10 Iyar until Rosh Hashanah”! Based on this discrepancy and others, the Darchei Moshe (Y.D. ibid. os 2) assumes that the Trumas Hadeshen had a different version of the Maharam.
It should be noted that the specific prescription of fasting for 40 days in order to atone for grave sins appears repeatedly in the influential Hilchos Teshuvah of the Maharam’s Ashkenazi predecessor, the Sefer Harokeiach (R’ Eliezer of Worms).
[11]Hagahos HaRama O.C. 334:26.
[12]Hagahos HaRama Y.D. 185:4.
[13]Magein Avraham siman 568 s.k. 12.
[14]Cf. Levush O.C. siman 568 end of se’if 2; Magein Avraham siman 334 s.k. 34; Chayei Adam, Shabbos Umo’adim klal 9 se’if 12; Mishnah Brurah siman 334 s.k. 77-81; Aruch Hashulchan ibid. se’ipim 44-45; here; and here.
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