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The Difficult Choice
‘His Father’s Lost Object And His Rebbe’s Lost Object…’
(Bava Metzia 33a)

 

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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.


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Rabbi Yaakov Klass is Rav of K’hal Bnei Matisyahu in Flatbush; Torah Editor of The Jewish Press; and Presidium Chairman, Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim.