The Chasidic man you see in this photo is Hershel Waldner. Today, he made a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, and YWN is happy to share this story with our readers.
Mr. Waldner was walking in Manhattan on Wednesday when he found a wallet on the floor near 35th Street and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The wallet had a drivers license, credit cards, and cash. Unfortunately, there was no contact information in the wallet – but Waldner got to work.
In the wallet, he found a business card with a hard written phone number on the back, and called it. It turned out to be the boss of the man who had lost his wallet. The boss told him that he was located in Delaware, but the owner of the wallet lived in Arizona, and the man was just vacationing in New York City for a few days.
The boss contacted the owner of the wallet, and came to B&H Photo – Where Waldner works – to retrieve it.
Although the man was ecstatic to get his wallet back, along with all his credit cards and cash, Hershel Waldner was even more ecstatic by being able to fulfill the Mitzvah of Hashovas Aveida and making a tremendous Kiddush Hashem.
(Chaim Shapiro – YWN)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
18 Responses
It’s a mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem, but definitely not Hashavas Aveida. See the Pasuk inside for more information, as well as Rashi on first page of Bava Metzia
Kiddush Hashem, yes. Hashavas Aveda, no.
Beautiful
he was not mekayim hashovos aveide just kiddish hasem….plese look up the sigyo in the ‘bavos’
Certainly Mr. Waldner did the right thing, and surely he made a great Kiddush Hashem, and I applaud him for it. But we should be clear that this is not the Mitzvah of Hashovas Aveida. That mitzvah pertains hashovas avaidas AMECHA.
A huge Kiddush Hashem it was but not the kiyum of Mitzvas Hashova Aveida!
Does Yeshiva World have any Rabbis editing their content? This is obviously not a mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah, nor a Kiddush Hashem. Mr. Waldman did do a nice thing that any decent human being should have done in his place. Not sure why it’s newsworthy.
From what I understand you are mistaken it is indeed a kiddush a sham and that is the reason why you are allowed to return it
We had the same debate about a year or two ago when a Chabad rav in Connecticut found a large amount of cash hidden in a drawer in a desk he had purchased at a used furniture store. And I’m certain this type of event occurs with some frequency. The question is whether it should be referred to as a “Kiddush hashem” if a yid behaves ethically. This characterization makes it appear that such behavior is such an anomaly and implicitly perpetuates the negative stereotype that most yidden are a bunch of ganovim and its a rarity if one does the right thing with respect to facilitating the return of lost property. Doing a mitzvah, whatever the mitzvah may be (whether hashavas aveidah or whatever) is NOT per se a Kiddush hashem.
Doing a mitzvah by itself is not a kiddish Hashem but doing a mitzvah that causes people to look at Jews In a positive way And elevates hashem in the worlds eyes is most definitely a kiddush hashem
whether its a mitzvah, a Kiddush Hashem or not its good to tell over these stories as it will perhaps inspire others to do the same if the opportunity arises. I had a similar story a few years ago. My children found a pocketbook on i3th Avenue. There was money, keys, and other personal items The only ID was an appointment card to some health food store on fourth avenue. It took some detective work to track down the owner. Before the owner came to pick up the pocket book I told my children I know this lady will offer a reward let us do as Yeshaya Hanavi did and not accept it. I think the fact I didn’t accept a reward had a bigger impact on the owner of the pocketbook then that I returned it.
Major Kiddush Hashem….
First, whether or not this is a mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah depends upon the identity of the owner of the wallet; the owner, not the person who came to collect the wallet. Second, what this gentlemen did was, clearly, a Kiddush Hashem; he sanctified HaShem’s Name, both, to Jews and to non-Jews. Nor ought one to draw the false inference that such noble behavior brings to mind the negative stereotypes that many have of us. To the contrary; when a Jew behaves like a mensch, it is a Kiddush HaShem. We kindle the lights of Hanukah to publicize the nes; when we act as this man acted, we publicize the qualities that ennoble and heal a broken world.
@gadolhadora,
The reason this story and the story of the Jew who found money in the desk and returned it are news worthy in the secular news is because goyim were shocked because most gouim would never think of returnong the money, but many Yidden would and interestingly the 2 such stories that we heard about happen to be Jews in a country with far more goyim.
You know, I really enjoy the usernames that are all “holy” but when a Fellow Jew does the right thing it becomes a debate if it is a kiddish hashem if it’s not, if it’s a segulah or a curse. It’s really disgusting how a Jew can knock something like this. Who cares what your opinion is!?! The fact is that he did something probably higher than your level, and actually morally did the right thing and potentially made some more people change their mind about us Jews and this is all you can think of saying!?! If you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything. Words to live by. It’s appalling to see how sad and miserable people are that they have to sit on the internet (but as long as it says kollel, rav, tosfos yid, etc. its suddenly kosher) and take good deeds apart. I guarantee that had anyone told this to ANY real rebbe they would have said he did the right thing. Get your you know what off your chair and start complementing each other and we will have the Beis hamikdash a lot sooner than if we worry about a good deed being a kiddish hashem or not. Rant over. Good night all.
people, get a life. YWN posted something which is very positive it’s unfourtanately that most news today is negative, now when we finally see something which is a good thing why can’t people just read without leaving a (-) comment? oh, “it was kidush hashem, but not hashuves avida” who really cares??don’t you guys have anything better what to do? does YWN need everyone’s opinion every single time when they post something. have u ever thought to yourself what a negative impact u leave on other people. stop, stop, grow up. I want to tell you a good rule of thumb, before u want to post something, 1)write it down, 2)wait 24 hours 3) post it.
you will see that 99% of the time you won’t post
good night and a Frelichen Chanukah
Don’t you people have lives? Are you all Sunday morning Rabbis? WHO CARES? For a change, YWN is bringing us a nice, human interest story instead of appeals R”L for yesomim and dying parents. It’s nice, it’s harmless, & whether or not it’s “officially” a Kiddush Hashem, Mr. Waldner did something that just may make someone think… hey, Jews AREN’T money grabbing monsters.
You need to get over yourselves & start helping your wives if you have so much time on your hands.
I see that this article has 17 comments so I start reading, expecting to see all the wonderful things people are saying about this Yid who went out of his way to find the owner of this wallet. Instead, I find that more than half of the comments are debating whether this was actually a kiddush Hashem.
That’s pretty embarrassing in my opinion.