EXOD383 His son R. Ishmael said: He who avoids involvement with the law rids himself of enmity, robbery, and invalid oath-taking; while he who takes pride in laying down the law is foolish, wicked, and arrogant of spirit. (Pirkei Avot, Perek IV, Mishnah 9) … a Jew should shun litigation and refrain at all costs from involving the "long arm of the law." Even if you have a valid claim against someone, rights that can be enforced, or something "coming to you," do not feel impelled to bring the matter before the beth din, the rabbinic court (much less before a non-Jewish court of law). You need not insist on the letter of the law. There is a higher level of relationship then justice, a higher "law" by which to live: righteousness. The religious Jew should strive to be a hassid, who goes beyond the requirements and stringencies of justice. The hassid does not insist on exacting every last penny due him. He is willing to forgo some of his share, if he will thus avoid controversy. The hassid, as we will read later in Avoth, is the type who can readily say when necessary, "What is yours is yours, and what is mine is yours." (Avoth v 13). As the Sages indicate elsewhere (T.B. Baba Metzi'a 30b), havoc and ruin can befall an entire city or nation if its people ruthlessly insist on rigorous justice in every least matter, and refuse to abide by mercy. To keep a community living and working smoothly, we need the lubricating oil of goodwill; everyone must be ready to act with charity and "give a little." Otherwise friction mounts until the machinery of human relations breaks down and the community destroys itself. If you take to the courts in a fine blaze of righteous anger, at the very least you will arouse resentment and hatred. Even if you win your case, you usually lose something more important: the goodwill of people about you. Furthermore, acquisitiveness is contagious. If you become very demanding and exacting, seeking to protect your own rights and possessions to the last iota, the people with whom you deal will begin to do likewise. Others can play at the game as well as you. Do not force them to. Moreover, there is a possibility that you are wrong in your demands. The facts may not be as you think. Perhaps, through a legal technicality, you will be awarded the money you claim, but in reality you will take what does not belong to you. Sometimes, believing yourself to be right, you will take an oath and make statements that are actually false: in the zealous pursuit of your rights you may "take the name of the Lord your God in vain" [this verse]. Abstain, remove yourself from litigations and lawsuits, says R. Ishmael, and you will remove yourself from hatred, robbery and swearing falsely: from hatred, because you will incur no enmity by hailing people into court; from robbery, for you will take no one's property through faulty or inhumane legal decisions; from false and improper oaths--since outside the courtroom you will not be moved to take an oath by a passionate but erroneous conviction of certainty.