Leasing or pledging a safek treifah animal to a non-Jew for twelve months

Description

The Chasam Sofer rules that while the Rema's stringency generally prohibits selling a single safek treifah to a non-Jew, pledging it as collateral with a redemption date set after twelve months is permitted. Multiple structural safeguards — the non-Jew cannot transfer the animal during the pledge, the Jew is unlikely to redeem it early, and no one would assume the financial risk of redeeming a doubtful animal — reduce any takkalah concern to purely theoretical. For such cases not addressed by the poskim, the Mechaber's lenient ruling may be relied upon.