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Hi,
I was wondering what most people would o if they saw a penny on the street. Would you stop to pick it up or would you just walk by it?
I want to get a feel for most people’s opinion on the matter.
I personally would pick up the penny.
Please post your response and the reason for picking it up.
Thanks!
One reason I would not is because there are so many nasty jokes about Jews chasing every last penny,my doing so would only incite comments from non-Jewish passersby.AND THESE DAYS A PENNY IS HARDLY WORTHWHILE BENDING DOWN FOR…the chiropractor bills are way higher!
Chazal: kol pruta upruta mitztarfin licheshbon gadol.
Only an Indian.
No, I am the one who dropped it.
What would I do with it? Save it for three weeks until my next cash purchase, only to find that I end up with even more pennies?
But I’m glad someone picks it up. I don’t want to just be a litterbug.
If Yaakov could go back for “pachim ketanim”, I can bend down for a penny.
My feeling is that if HaSh-m put it in my path, it was for a reason, so even if I feel I don’t need a penny that much MYSELF, I’ll pick it up and put it in a pushke.
pruta ?????
When was the last time you checked the price of silver??
Pruta is a specific weight of silver not “smallest coin”
penny for your thoughts ?
I walked right past a nickel yesterday and did not pick it up. It wasn’t mine.
TheGoq-lol
i dont pick it up
I’m always of two minds about it.
On the one hand, I’m somewhat lazy, and so, I generally don’t have a great urge to stop and pick up small change.
On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that when I get up to Heaven, HKBH will say to me “since you obviously don’t value small change (because you did not pick it up) then the small change you gave for tzedaka during your life shouldn’t count — since you deem it worthless.”
The Wolf
the nickel WAS yours, it was given to you, at least would have been yours as soon as you picked it up. it was no one elses in any case. if you saw it it was designated for you.
which is why many Talmedei Chochomim advise picking up a coin one finds (some argue on which minimum amount, some say any money) if no one is able to see you or if they are unable to determine what you are picking up. its a gift from Hashem
I agree with eclipse. Years ago some goyim used to throw pennies at jews and if they picked it up they would laugh at the cheap jew.
Charlie Brown…
If goyim laughed at ME in the scenario you described,
I would laugh back at THEM, and say…
“Why are YOU dopes laughing at ME, I have YOUR money, and will give it to a JEWISH charity!!! Throw some MORE!!!”
Anyone that wont pick up a penny because goyim USED to throw pennies at Jews and make fun of them is NOT SO SMART (THE WORD I USED GOT EDITED OUT)
When was the last time that you saw that happen??
In fact if you willl google it you will see that “good” (religious) goyim believe that it the correct thing to do is to pick up a penny.
After all it does say on the penny “IN GOD WE TRUST”
And as far as a Jewish outlook goes- how in the world can someone justify not picking up the penny???? Hashem has a sent you money and you just walk by?? And then you go daven and ask for parnassah and Hashem says “Yankel- i just sent you a penny of your future money, but obviously it means nothing”…
And I am sure all of you have the idea of Yaakov Avinu’s pachim kitanim and understand that ALL MONEY COMES FROM GOD!!!
No.
And as far as a Jewish outlook goes- how in the world can someone justify not picking up the penny????
I do it often, but in a different context.
More than once, after getting a soda from the machine at work, I have found an extra quarter in the change return bin. Invariably, I take only what is rightfully mine. My reasoning is twofold:
1. If the money belongs to the vending machine owner (i.e. the machine returned the wrong amount of change), then it’s simply not my money. The fact that someone else may come along after me and take it does not change that fact.
2. If it belongs to someone else (i.e. the person before me forgot to take their change) then they may come back for it. The fact that they may not and that someone else will take it does not change the fact that it’s not mine.
The Wolf
of course yours is a different situation
here there is possibly a chazakah
there is a clear simon makom
it is possibly a rshush ha yachid (i dont know your exact situation)
the money is in a guarded place
and there is possibly an identifiable mara kama
Anyone that wont pick up a penny because goyim USED to throw pennies at Jews and make fun of them is NOT SO SMART (THE WORD I USED GOT EDITED OUT)
When was the last time that you saw that happen??
IIRC R’ Avi Shafran said (IN CC) that it has happened to him recently with a quarter.
I think that everything happens for a reason. If I found it, I must have found it for a reason. I might have to pass it on, or it might be the penny I put in the pushka, or it might bring someone good luck. I don’t know why it is there in front of me. Maybe Hashem is testing me and if I pick it up, he will put something better in my path the next time. Who knows? Only Hashem, so he does his part and I have to do mine.
workandlearn…relax.
It happened to me near Flatbush Avenue. I was walking and right after I passed a group of goyim they threw some coins in my direction and started laughing.
I have never picked up a coin (any denomination) from the floor in public. I think it can definitely make a minor chillul Hashem.
I have never picked up a coin (any denomination) from the floor in public. I think it can definitely make a minor chillul Hashem.
Even if you just dropped it?
The Wolf
A23, if idiots are trying to make a fool out of someone then they are the fools who just threw away their money. Just keep walking and ignore them.
We were in Paris a year and a half ago. Personally I didn’t want to go but my husband insisted. We went with another couple. One of our granddaughters were just born and I just wanted to stay and bond, it was the middle of the summer and the worst time to go. But we went with our friends. I never had the desire to go to Paris because of the anti-semitism, I didn’t feel the need to give them my money. At any right, we were walking on one of the main streets when this imbecile does the Hile Hitler as he walks past us. I immediate turn and stare at him. My immediate instincts is to follow him as he is looking back at me and keeps walking. My husband and friends grab me as I start walking after him and he keeps walking away. I wanted to show him that I wasn’t afraid of him but disgusted by him and they were pulling me back. He kept walking. He thought he was funny but he wasn’t as funny as he thought because he didn’t want a confrontation and he wasn’t standing around waiting for one. People started staring at him as well but he didn’t stop because he was a coward!!!!
My friend thought I lost it. I am second generation survivor and my mother a”h and her sisters were prisoners at Auschwitz so I guess I had a knee jerk reaction. But you can’t let these people get to you or cower from them. Their hatred will come back to haunt them. YOU must hold your head high when you pass these cowards.
In the news section, the report on the kids that beat up the Rebbe in Williamsburg said they picked on him because Jews don’t fight back!
Wolf, it depends on who’s looking. But yes, there have been times I dropped a coin or two and decided not to pick it up based on this anti-semitic issue.
I once heard the following “If you don’t think a penny is worthy of being picked up, you are not worth a penny”
Personally I usually do pick up a penny if I find one. For some reason I feel like it’s Bal Tashchis if I don’t…
“If you don’t think a penny is worthy of being picked up, you are not worth a penny”
That is a terrible thing to say. I am not worth a penny? I wouldn’t even say that about someone who says that!
I (nearly)always pick up a penny. And I don’t put it in a pushka. My rav says that’s too easy. The money that one works for and feels is really his, is the money that goes in the pushka.
Wolf, it depends on who’s looking. But yes, there have been times I dropped a coin or two and decided not to pick it up based on this anti-semitic issue.
OK, I guess we just have to agree to disagree.
While there are times that I don’t pick up a coin that I dropped, it’s usually out of laziness. I don’t think that picking up a coin you just dropped should inflame any antisemites (or at least not beyond anything they would do just for your act of breathing).
The Wolf
Yes, I bend down even for a penny!
The Alter Gerrer Rebbe Z’TL said in Yiddish, “If you don’t pick up the penny then you are not worth the penny!”
I don’t care what others think, I only care what H’KBH thinks…
If I find money in the street, I will pick it up and decide to give to zedaka or not.
Yes, Aries 2756, I agree with you. You should not let anyone intimidate you with the Heil Hitler Y’SVZ salute, we have to remember and never forget! We have nothing to be embarrassed about, we must keep our heads held high always!
I wouldnt pick it up.
i have walked past penny coins loads of times and not even thought about picking it up.
The only $$ I once picked up was a $20 bill I found.
No, I wouldn’t pick up a penny.
I believe that the Halacha for returning a lost object includes the idea that you don’t have to return something that is beneath your dignity to retrieve.
At that rate, each of us may have a threshold that we feel is beneath our dignity to retrieve.
Today I found a quarter on the ground and ignored it. a neighbor passed and asked me why I don’t pick up the quarter. So I did and gave it to my little son!
I guess Hashem wanted to show me that he will make me do something even if a few hours ago I said I don’t pick up pennies from the floor!
It depends where it is (how many people are around) but being female, in general I feel uncomfortable bending down in the middle of anywhere to pick up a coin (even more so a penny than a quarter which is flatter and thinner). This is JMO, but I do understand why someone would bend down to pick it up.
If I have the time I will, if it’s someone else’s. If it’s mine -always!
I’ve had many goyim throw pennies or drop them around me -these I won’t pick up!
About 40 years ago my Rosh Yeshiva bent down to pick up a penny. One of the bucherim asked him if it wasn’t below his dignity to do so. The Rosh answered that if Hashem put it in front of him and he did not pick it up he would be showing he is ungrateful, and Hashem might think he is not interested in money and no longer send it. Then how would the yeshiva exist?
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