Is Hiring Professional Help That Doesn’t Work Out Considered Mekach Ta’us?

Question

I am a marbitz Torah and I use my voice heavily to give many shiurim. I have also written many seforim. Recently, I came across difficulty with both of these issues, and I needed to hire people to help me with them. I wanted to ask the rov about problems I encountered.

I was getting very hoarse from so much speaking, so I hired someone to give me voice lessons. I looked into a specific individual who offers private voice lessons, and I was told by someone else who had taken his course that I would need ten lessons. At the start of these lessons, we were working on various exercises. When I asked him how long it would take to get to practical voice training, he promised me that it would be soon. After ten lessons had passed, I asked how many more lessons I would need. I was told that I would need at least another 20, which I was unable to afford, both financially and because of the time commitment. Is this considered a mekach ta’us?

The second question is in regard to a sefer that I am putting out soon. I hired an editor to do another round of proofreading after typesetting had already been done. The proofreader told me that she could make the changes on the PDF, and then the person who had done the layout could easily accept them into the text.

This woman did an excellent job with the proofreading, but when I went back to the person who had done the layout for me, she told me that she was not familiar with the program that the proofreader had used and she did not know how to accept the changes. I may need to hire someone else to insert these changes into the document, or the original layout person will have to start from scratch. I would like to know if there is an element of mekach ta’us in this case, since I am currently unable to use these changes.

Thank you.

R.T.

Rav Zafrani 

Neither of these cases is considered a mekach ta’us. In the first case, there was no mekach ta’us. I also had your problem and took ten voice lessons, which I believe is quite standard. Had the teacher promised you to finish the course within those lessons, there would have been a question of mekach ta’us. But he did not promise you this, and the fact that someone else told you that other teachers can do this does not make your situation a mekach ta’us. While it was improper for him to tell you that he would be getting to practical issues soon when this was not the case, and it is always yoshor for a worker to tell his employer how much the work will cost before starting, this does not make the arrangement a mekach ta’us. It is the obligation of the person hiring to clarify this information beforehand.

The same is true regarding the second case. She was employed to make the changes for you and she did this job. The fact that your other worker did not have the technical knowledge to accept the changes she made is not her responsibility.

In general, the best policy when hiring someone is to clarify as much as possible beforehand exactly what they will be doing, how long it will take, exactly how much they will be charging, and all other relevant details that are needed to successfully complete the job. Although it is close to impossible to think of every single problem that could come up, nonetheless, the more that is clarified beforehand, the fewer problems there will be afterward.

May you have great success in getting both your voice and your upcoming sefer in order, and may you continue to use both of these mediums to be marbitz Torah for Klal Yisroel.