THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5776 Issue XXXX Balak Anger Management Are financial decisions made out of anger halachically binding? By: Rav Yosef Grunwald

Occasionally, in the course of business dealings, people can get angry or upset and say or do things they regret later on. Do such actions have legal validity according to Halachah? Let us consider the following example. Someone took a ride in a taxi, and at the conclusion of the trip, he began haggling with the driver over the price of the ride. The passenger handed the driver the amount he wanted to pay, but the driver got very upset, and said, “If you don’t pay my price, don’t pay me anything, just get out of my taxi!” The driver then threw the money in the passenger’s face, and drove away. Do we consider the taxi driver’s actions to be a mechilah of the entire fee for the trip, or do we say that since the driver was speaking out of anger, it is not considered a mechilah, and the passenger still owes money for the ride?