“The Holy Bike”
A Moral Dilemma for the Shabbos Table

By Rabbi Yitzi Weiner
This week’s Torah portion discusses the mitzvah to write a Sefer Torah as the Torah says “Now therefore write this song” (Devarim 31, 19 Parshas Vayeilech).Included in this mitzvah is a mitzvah to purchase Sefarim (Torah books) to be able to study from, such as a Chumash, Gemara, or Shulchan Aruch. (See Sefer Hamitzvos Hakatzar Positive 15)

It is customary that when a boy becomes bar mitzvah, many people purchase sefarim and torah books for the bar mitzvah boy to be able to study from one day. It is not uncommon that some bar mitzvah boys get duplicates of certain sefarim (At my own bar mitzva I got at least four sets of the sefer Meshech Chochma. :-))

This leads us to the following interesting true story. Chaim was a bright and energetic bar mitzvah boy. Like many boys his age he got a lot of sefarim at his bar mitzvah. But to his surprise he got three sets of the Rambam,  four sets of the Mishna Berura, and two sets of a pocket Talmud. Being an enterprising boy he walked over to the local sefarim store, where he presumed the sefarim were purchased. The proprietor was an understanding man and he said he could take back the duplicates for a refund.

“How much can I get for these?” Chaim asked?  “About 200 dollars”, the owner replied.

Cham was very excited. He needed a new bicycle and here was his chance to return the sefarim to buy a new bike. Chaim exchanged the books and received the refund.

This led Chaim to the following question. Was it permitted for him to exchange the books to purchase a bicycle with them?

On one hand, he thought, what could be the problem? The money wasn’t holy and there was certainly nothing wrong with buying a bike.

But on the other hand, he knew that owning sefarim was a mitzvah. The money that he gets in return should perhaps be designated for a similar mitzvah. Would it be wrong to use the money used for a mitzvah for a more mundane purpose like a bicycle? Can we say that because taking care of one’s health is a mitzvah that it would be ok to use the money to buy a bike?
What would you answer Chaim?

See Chashukei Chemed Megilla page 330

Answer to last week’s moral dilemma

This story is discussed in Veharev Na Volume Three page 83

Rabbi Zilberstein says the the owner of the company presumably does not want his customer service representative to be using work time for extraneous matters.  In that case it would be facilitating theft for Avi to talk about divrei torah on paid time. He should rather exchange numbers with him and talk to him after work.
Have a beautiful shabbos!

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