Yosef Karo

“ Paragraph 1- One who accepts a relative or disqualified individual to be a judge or witness- acceptance means they accepted to be judged; handing the money over to a third party to judge is not called acceptance- like two valid witnesses or three expert judges, even if he is disqualified due to sin, whether the party accepted to forfeit his rights and forgive what his counterparty was claiming based on their words or he accepted that he will give his adversary whatever he is claiming on the basis of this disqualified person’s testimony or ruling, if they made a kinyan, he cannot retract. ”

“ Once he made a kinyan from him, he cannot retract. If there was no kinyan, he can retract prior to the conclusion of the case and his oath, even if he accepted in court. One who was required to swear but says in front of the court that he does not want to and instead wishes to pay, cannot change his mind once he has left the court because that is the conclusion of his case. There are those that disagree. One who owed his adversary a biblical oath and tells such adversary that he should swear without holding a sacred item, cannot retract. ”

“ If the party denies that he ever accepted to be judged by these people, and there are no witnesses, he must swear that he never accepted him, even if the judge contradicts him and claims he did accept him. If the public appoints unlearned judges, the parties cannot disqualify them. ”