Categories: Halacha & Hashkafa
Daf Yomi
The Difficult Choice
‘His Father’s Lost Object And His Rebbe’s Lost Object…’
(Bava Metzia 33a)
Our mishnah rules that when a person is confronted with the choice of returning a lost article belonging to his father and one belonging to his rebbe, he must return his rebbe’s first. The mishnah explains: Though his father brought him into this world, his rebbe brought him into the World to Come.
A Father’s Tuition Payment
The Rema (Yoreh De’ah 242:34) cites Sefer Chassidim (585) which asserts that this halacha only applies if the rebbe teaches without remuneration. The Aruch Hashulchan (Choshen Mishpat 264:2) states that the rebbe’s object is returned second even if his remuneration does not come from the father. The Aruch Hashulchan (Yoreh De’ah 242:5) also notes that a rebbe who receives remuneration must still be feared and honored.A Sponsor
The Aruch Hashulchan (Choshen Mishpat, ad loc.) cites the Shach (on Choshen Mishpat and Yoreh De’ah) who rules that when the rebbe’s remuneration comes from another source, a sponsor, that individual’s lost object should be returned before that of the rebbe himself. This opinion is relevant if someone is directly sponsoring a rebbe’s salary. Generally speaking, though, it is not applicable nowadays since charitable money for our institutions come from communal scholarship funds.
