Q&A: Question
Question
Question
Hello and blessings,
I was asked a question, and I would be glad to know the broad opinion of his honored Torah eminence.
There is a yeshiva high school, where the rosh yeshiva planned some kind of two-day trip to get to know rabbinic figures and influential personalities today.
The condition was that everyone would sign up (or perhaps one or two not).
They took a vote, and indeed it came out that aside from one or two, everyone wanted to go.
This trip costs a lot of money, so on the claim that “its neglect is its fulfillment,” the rosh yeshiva arranged one day on which everyone would go work in order to obtain the sum required.
However, there were three students who came and said in their hearts: “I’m not going on the trip — it’s neglect of Torah study” — but I do need the money, so I’ll go out for this work day…
When they returned, they organized the trip, and to their dismay it became clear that those boys did not really intend to go on the trip because it was “neglect of Torah study,” but rather they worked for the money.
As a result, the trip was canceled. The question is: what is the law regarding their money, and what do they need to do? After all, the rosh yeshiva would not have let everyone go just so they could earn money; he let them go with the goal of financing this meaningful rabbinic trip…
What is the law according to his honored Torah eminence?
Answer
Hello.
I did not understand the question.
At this point, each boy earned money and the trip was canceled. Is the question whether they should return the money to their employers? After all, they worked for it.
The rosh yeshiva can require those three who did not want to go on the trip to sit and study for another three days out of their vacation because of the neglect of Torah study. But in monetary law, I did not understand what doubt there is here.
Discussion on Answer
What does it mean to make up the money for the class? They worked and received money in exchange for their work. Why on earth should they give it to the class?! Also, the permission to go out to work is an educational principle, not a legal right. After all, they could also have disobeyed the rosh yeshiva and gone out against his express wishes. Beyond that, I understood that the trip was canceled regardless of the funding, simply because not everyone was going on it.
Obviously they acted improperly, both in terms of the institution’s rules and in terms of neglect of Torah study.
Apparently you are right, because at first glance:
A slave — everything produced by his hands belongs to his master.
A student is not a slave, and what he produces belongs to him.
But
since he circumvented the decision, the principal or rosh yeshiva is entitled to fine him.
The yeshiva administration has the status of the seven leading townsmen within the institution, and they are entitled to impose a fine, as explained in Choshen Mishpat, section 2.
The question was what he is obligated to do, not what the rosh yeshiva can decide about him.
I also do not think that the rosh yeshiva has the status of the seven leading townsmen with respect to fines. A fine on the boy is a fine on his parents, since they support him, and a rosh yeshiva cannot fine parents.
A nice letter from Rabbi Ovadia to a rabbi who fined his son
https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?t=37535#p516960
The question is:
A. Whether to require these three to pay and make up the money for the whole class.
B. Whether they acted improperly by going to work while knowing that this was not really for work.