Are We In This Together? Rent Cancellation and COVID 19 ​​​​​​​(Sources)

Rabbi Baruch Meir Levin, Landlord-Tenant in Halacha, 85n141

I saw a story, brought about a rich Hasid of Yitzchak Meir Rotenberg-Alter [i.e the first Gerer Rebbe, 1799-1866], who was going to evict a poor tenant who had rented from him, because he could not pay the rent. And the Gerer Rebbe rebuked the landlord about this. The landlord answered that he was ready to participate in the appropriate collection for him, but why was he [the landlord] obligated more than others, to carry on himself the entire loss? The Gerer Rebbe answered him: “We find with respect to someone who is half-enslaved and half-free that we force his master to free him so he can marry. And behold, also in this case one might ask, ‘Why is his master obligated to take all the loss? Let the enslaved man go and gather contributions to redeem himself!’ Rather, you must say that since the enslaved man fell into the portion of the master, it’s on him to absorb the loss. And also here, since he’s your renter, it’s on you to bear this.”

Responsum of Rav Asher Weiss, 5.4.2020

As to the question of many of the foreigners who fled their houses in Israel and returned to their homes in the Diaspora at the outbreak of coronavirus, and now they cannot return, and they want to annul the rental contracts of the houses they rented in Israel, or at least to reduce the rent drastically: The landlords claim that the contracts were sealed for a year, and it is impossible to withdraw from them during that period…

The ruling is... that anywhere where most of the valley is blasted is a regional disaster… obviously, most renters have certainly stayed in their homes, but according to what was told to me, most young families from abroad left Israel... particularly in certain neighborhoods where most of the renters are young couples from abroad… it’s logical that since we are speaking of defined neighborhoods, which are like a market to themselves, and nearly all of the renters are foreigners, it is appropriate to judge them on their own…

And don’t say that the law of “regional disaster” only applies in a case of actual loss of money, like the Mishnayot in Bava Metzia, in which a renter ends up losing, but that it wouldn’t apply to a landlord when the renter isn’t losing out, for in truth, when a renter is not able to benefit from and make use of the rented thing, that is like a loss.

The authorities further debate, assuming it is a “regional disaster,” whether the renters have the right to demand a reduction in the rent, or only to nullify the rental contract going forward… And those who want to reduce the rent, they have justice in their claims, since they do not live in their homes, and they cannot return because of the regional disaster, but it is difficult to fix the amount of the compromise, since their belongings are still in the apartment, and the landlord cannot make use of the apartment. Also it is a presumption of the court that if the landlord were to throw out their possessions, in the majority of cases, it would be impossible for the landlord to rent the apartment to others…

And apparently, if the renter were to demand to reduce the rent, the landlord would say, “I want to annul the contract, and you leave the apartment,” and since the landlord knows that the renter cannot do so, since most of the tenants left their personal possessions in the apartments - and even if they found someone ready to do the move-out and transport, and they found storage places, nonetheless no one wants strangers to come into their house to move them out when all their personal possessions are in the house. It would turn out that the landlord would exploit the predicament of the renter to force them to pay the full rent. And it seems to me in such a case we would compel the landlord, given his miserly behavior. And since the landlord cannot rent the apartment at the moment, since there is no demand, the rent ought to be diminished, and the claim of the landlord to nullify the contract and demand the clearing of the house cannot be accepted… and thus it seems to me they should compromise on 50% of the rent.

Responsa Avnei Shayish 1:51 (Hakham Shaul Yeshuah Abitbul, 1739-1809)

The king decreed on the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns and the tents of Kedar and the tents of the Philistines, that they should come to the city of their dwelling and should not continue to travel as merchants in those places. And thus there arose before me the incredible moaning of the employers with their employees. For the employers sue to nullify the contract going forward, based on the argument that they had only employed them with the intention that they do their work outside [their home city], and now that it was decreed on them that they not leave, and both they and their employees were sitting idle let the contract be nullified going forward. And the employees replied, “We are ready to do your work, and if your work is impeded, it’s your bad luck that caused it.” …

… And after deliberation in this matter, I ruled with the employees, i.e. that the employers weren’t permitted to go back and nullify the contract, for the loss in such a case is the employer’s, and the contract should continue until the fixed time…
[After considering another court’s ruling that they could nullify the contract, which Hakham Abitbul rejects, he concludes:] Nevertheless, when they come to collect, in a case where the workers sit completely idly, we should say that they should not collect all their wage, rather only like an “idle worker.”

Novellae of the Ritva (Yom Tov ben Avraham Asevilli, Seville 1260-1330), Tractate Ketubot 32b, Tractate Ketubot 32b

[Another case under discussion] is comparable to a case in which the father rented a house and died, in which case the inheritors use it for the entirety of his rental and are not obligated in the rent, since the father does not leave to them the financial responsibility for his possessions.

Gilyon haGR’’A (Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, Vilna 170-1797) on SA CM 341:3 on SA CM 341:3

One who rents and dies, if the renters want to use it, it seems to me that even if the father didn’t leave them possessions, they need to pay the rent from their own… since their father did not have the right of use for free, so too they don’t.

Nonetheless, it is possible to say that immediately when their father rented, he took on a monetary debt, and he acquired the usage right. And the inheritors can say, “Our father died, and we inherit the usage right, but we won’t pay his debt.” And it’s like one who bought moveable objects and didn’t give the money; the heirs get the objects but don’t pay the debt. Here too temporary rental is like a purchase…

Rulings of Meknes Rabbis, Ruling 14, 1 (in Rabbi Professor Moshe Amar, Sefer Takanot, the Sages of Meknes, Morocco: 1996)
We have agreed, and set forth a ruling, that whoever rents an apartment from this day onward, the owner shall not be able to make the renter leave it for a whole year. The year will start in the month of Iyar, and end in the month of Iyar, and the owner will not be able to make this person leave at all throughout this time. And the owner shall not increase the amount of rent due, and the only time that the amount could be raised is in the month of Iyar specifically. And even if the owner should make an agreement with the person renting the apartment to let him live there for six months, the owner still does not have the right to make him leave without his will before the month of Iyar. And we shall keep this ruling as our custom here for all generations to come.

Magen Avraham

(Avraham Gombiner, Poland 1635-1682) on SA OC 576

When the pox spreads among children and they die, a fast should be decreed… and in the Shlah it is written that everyone should evacuate his children from the city at this time, and if they do not do so, they are guilty for their lives.

Scaffolding

Erez Bitton

On the threshold of half a house in the Land of Israel

my father stood

pointing to the sides and saying:

Upon these ruins

one day we will build a kitchen

to cook in it a Leviathan’s tail

and a wild bull,

upon these ruins

we will build a corner for prayer

to make room

for a bit of holiness.

My father remained on the threshold

and I, my entire life,

have been erecting scaffolding

reaching up to the sky.