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.