March 10, 2026 · 4:25
Questions? Comments? We love feedback! Email us at [email protected] Rav Baruch FriedQuestion: One of the people who is considered by halacha to be unable to participate in commerce is a “cheresh”. I have a business partner who is deaf and hears through a cochlear implant. Does he have the status of a cheresh?Answer: Generally, this question is not so relevant because just like there is a takanah of Chazal that a child who understands commerce can engage in business transactions, so too, Chazal enacted that a cheresh who understands commerce can be involved in business. The one exception, however, is real estate. A true cheresh cannot engage in property transactions.If someone with a cochlear implant is involved with real estate, we would have to determine if he is considered a cheresh.Acharonim have long dealt with the question of someone who is technically a cheresh yet is obviously smart and acclimated. As a rule, they are hesitant to say definitively that such a person can ever have the status of a pikeach.In other areas of halacha, if someone cannot hear but he can speak, many Rishonim say that he is considered a pikeach according to halacha. Again, however, they say that real estate is an exception and he cannot engage in transactions involving property.Rav Moshe Feinstein has a teshuva about a person who can speak but cannot hear at all without the aid of a machine (similar to a cochlear implant). He says that such a person is in the category of a medaber v’aino shom