by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

It happened in Nevei Yaakov in Eretz Yisroel.

There is a suit giveaway gemach where they charge 3 or 4 sheckels per suit. A young mother came to volunteer. She brought her ten year old son along because she did not have a baby sitter.
While she was volunteering, the young man went through the suit pockets and found a $100 bill with a note attached. The note had one word written in Hebrew, “Hatzlacha.”

Obviously, the donor of the suit wanted to give Tzedakah as well to a poor family.

But now the question arises: What should be done with the money?

The person that ran the Gemach felt that it should go to the Gemach because the money was ownerless – hefker. He argued that it would go to his organization through something called Kinyan Chatzer. The Gemorah in Bava Metziah 9a discusses the fact that a yard can acquire an item for its owner. However, In order for a Chatzer to acquire an item, the Chatzer must be Mishtameres protected through the owner’s knowledge. If the Chatzer is not protected, it can thus acquire only if the owner is standing in or alongside it (See Bava Metzia 11a).

Some argued that since the intent of the donor was to give it to Tzedakah, it should be placed in any suit (the original one was forgotten) and given away. A third group suggested that the child should be allowed to keep it – as he found it.

There is a concept that when someone says selah zu le’ani it automatically goes to them. Rav Ephraim Navon zt”l (1677-1735), Rav of Constantinople and the mechaber of the Machaneh Efraim asks a question (Hilchos Tzedakah siman 2). There is a concept called amirah legavoAH is like mesira lehedyot. Hekdesh does not need haknaah. Whenever you say “harei zeh hekdesh” it goes to hekdesh immediately – it is an immediate haknaah. Do we say the same thing for tzedaka? When someone says, “selah zu l’aniyim” is this automatically theirs without need for further kinyan? “Amirah litz’daka is like mesira l’aniyim or not? The Machaneh Efraim writes that according to the Ran, it is already like Mesira to the ani.

One of the people involved in teh Eretz Yisroel side of this clothing drive asked a Bais Din that deals with mamonos and they ruled that the child should keep it, because he was an ani as well.

By the way, the clothing drive where this question originated was from the Five Towns Far Rockaway area – on the American side of things.

Oh and yes, the boy gave the money to his father to buy food for Shabbos. Meztias kotton l’aviv – that which a child finds goes to his father(See Bais Yoseph CM 270:2).

The clothing drive in Five Towns/Far Rockaway is held twice a year. The sheer numbers of clothing given is staggering. 75 TAG girls and HALB girls volunteer to organize and pack the clothing. And the numbers that come out of the Five Towns/Far Rockaway area match the entire New York metropolitan area.

The lesson learned? Mi k’amcha Yisroel! The sheer numbers of clothing, the tzedakah, the volunteering and the shailos asked!

The author can be reached at [email protected]