Rav Zilbershtein Defends His Recent Tzimmer Psak

Last week there was an interesting psak, and a controversial one, by Rav Zilbershtein about a fellow who was part of a family group reserving a set of tzimmers. He had to cancel, and then re-reserved it under questionable circumstances at a significant discount. Rav Zilbershtein paskened that the fellow was fine taking the discount, even if he used some questionable methods to get it, as that was the market value.

The psak created quite a stir, to the point that Rav Zilbershtein felt it important in his next shiur to defend his psak. Rav Zilbershtein says that all the other rabbonim argue with him, but this is how he sees it. he does not even understand the other arguments.

You can listen to Rav Zilbershtein's shiur (thanks to the reader who sent it to me) and hear it for yourself. After the section where he discusses this case, and responds to questions, there are also some other interesting topics he discusses. BTW, if you listen to the shiur, you should continue and listen to the questions and answers. I think he says more in response to the questions than in his initial explanation.

Points:

• Rav Zilbershtein seems to realize that the fellow used semi-deceptive means to get the discount, but despite that it was all based on the truth and was therefore ok
• the psak is based on what is according to beis din and is not a "dinei shamayim" issue. Perhaps he should have made a kiddush hashem and offered to pay the difference for the loss he caused, but that is not part of the halachic discussion.
• Rav Zilbershten insists that this was the market value and at the end of the day that is all that matters
• one point that was initially unclear - the original cancelation. At the time of the original reservation he had said he might need to cancel as he might need to travel abroad. the owner agreed to allow him to cancel with a certain amount of notice. Because he agreed to it, everything is ok. 
• It is important to point out that this is all true because the original cancelation and the subsequent re-reservation were made in good faith. Had he been planning the whole thing in advance, and canceled just so he could re-reserve at a discounted price, the psak would be different.