“Fancy Hotel Water”
A Moral Dilemma for the Shabbos Table
By Rabbi Yitzi Weiner
This week’s Torah portion talks about the story of the destruction of society during the time of Noach. Our sages teach that this destruction was sealed because of rampant theft. (click here for inspirational stories I collected about avoiding theft.)
The following moral dilemma question the limits of the prohibition of theft.
Leora stayed at an exclusive Manhattan hotel during a business trip. She woke up in the middle of the night and was very thirsty. She opened the complimentary mini refrigerator in her hotel room and took out a bottle of water. She drank it, quenched her thirst and went back to bed.
The next morning she looked at the price listing for the contents of the refrigerator and to her dismay she saw that the bottle of water that she drank cost six dollars.
“What a rip-off”, Leora thought. “This is a regular bottle of water that I can by in a corner grocery store. Had I known it was this expensive I never would have drank this”.
She walked across the street to the CVS, and bought the exact same bottle of water for one dollar. She replaced the bottle that she drank with an identical one.
“Some people pay in cash, I will pay with barter”, she rationalized to herself. “No one said that I can’t just replace the bottle”. It is now just like I never used the bottle. They have the exact same water.
Later that day she told this story to her daughter.
“Mommy that doesn’t seem right or ethical. Is it possible that you were stealing?
Who is right?
On one hand Leora paid exactly what she took. On the other hand the hotel was expecting six dollars and not a replacement bottle of water.
What do you think?
See Veharev Na volume one page 120
Answer to last week’s moral dilemma:
(click here to review the question)
This question is discussed in Chashukei Chemed Yoma page 554
Rabbi Zilberstein writes that Chaim does not need to call on Shabbos because there is no immediate danger to anyone’s life. But in order to avoid causing the nursing home staff and police to be preoccupied with searching for Yosef, Chaim should have asked a non-Jew directly if he could call the nursing home to let them know that the patient was safe.
Here is the conclusion of our car theft story.
When we saw the thieves break in to the car, I went outside hoping they would run away when they saw people. As soon as they saw me, they all got out of the car and ran away. After I went back in, we soon saw them return.
At that point, when it seemed like they were brazen enough to be a threat, someone in our family called 9-11. The police came ten minutes later and did not catch the thieves. The car was not stolen however.
I later discussed this with Rav Tzvi Berkowitz. He said that if thieves break into a home, it is an imminent danger and one should call the police on Shabbos. However breaking into a car is not enough of a threat to violate Shabbos for.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Click HERE if you would like to receive this question series as an email each week.