Avichai, director of one of the educational institutions in Beitar Illit, racked his brain how he could bring money to his institutions with a good trick or a casual deal or a handsome donation.
The flash that suddenly hit his mind shook him too, but he decided to go after it with all his might:
Avichai was a good imitator and also looked similar to one of the most important influencers of our generation. Hela knew that there was a great man who lived in his city, who made a Purim meal like a huge feast, and ‘everyone who stretches out a hand – they give him’.
Avichai also knew that Gabir was a big fan of the above-mentioned influencer, whom Avichai knew how to imitate perfectly, which also resembled him outwardly almost perfectly.
Hella coveted him and decided to recruit two young men with him to serve as his servants, and thus he would enter the gentleman’s house at the Purim meal, and imitate the influencer in his voice and movements perfectly and perhaps receive from him a considerable contribution to his institutions. Said and done.
Purim has arrived. At Beit Hagbir we got ready for the important meal. Slowly the gentleman, his family and his associates sat down to a good meal, and began handing out money to anyone who needed it. One hundred shekels per stringer/institution.
And suddenly there was a rustling in the air. The big ‘influencer’ has arrived!!!
The gentleman was very excited. Such a surprise, that the great influencer would come to his house – he did not expect that.
The gentleman hurried and got up from his seat and brought the ‘influencer’ (who was none other than Avichai of our knowledge) into his house with a great noise, seated him at the head of the table and called his assistants to record the great event.
Indeed Avichai of our knowledge ‘played it’ perfectly: he sat next to the gentleman, greeted and praised him and his family members, and the level of the gentleman’s emotions rose and rose.
When the “influential” came to leave – the gentleman brought a checkbook and wrote him NIS 40,000 for himself and his institutions, while thanking him with excitement and admiration for the great surprise and the great trouble of coming all the way to his house.
Inside the party, there was one sharp-eyed person, and apparently he didn’t drink like the rest of the people present who were properly perfumed, and he picked up on the scam. But the show is not stopped in the middle… However, the next morning in the synagogue – the man told the gentleman in a whisper that the “influencer” from last night was none other than the director of the Hagar institution on the other side of town.
Now the gentleman felt cheated and disappointed, and certainly did not want the matter to be published. He hurried to find Avichai and demanded that he return the check he gave him because he thought he was indeed the “influencer”, which turned out to be a gross lie and was found to have led him astray in front of many…
But Avichai, in his own right, refuses to return the check, saying: First of all – even if we assume that you did the zakat – there is a rule that if a person harmed because of the joy of Purim, he is exempt from payment, even by the laws of heaven. And what’s more is the main thing: a donation is a donation. A vow is a vow. It is a vow to bring charity to the poor and Torah workers – I and my institutions answer this fence precisely, and what do you do if you complain?
And the question is asked Shall we accept Avichai’s claims and does he not have to return the money he received at Simchat Purim from the master, or is he nothing more than a fraud and will have to return the check he received by mistake?
Answer in short: the check he received – Avichay must return it, and he is not allowed to accept from him even the hundred shekels that the gentleman distributed equally to all the other applicants at the dinner.
Answer in detail: The money that the rich man gave to charity – it was judged as a vow of charity, and it is ruled in the Halacha that ‘everyone who vows or swears, sees the things for which he swore or vowed, and learn from them what we mean, and follow the matter and not the meaning of the speech.’ And even if he made a vow to his friend, if he sleeps opinion estimate who meant a certain thing at the time of his donation – one must go according to the estimation of the mind and intention of the charity donor.
So it turns out in our case that there was serious cheating here, because everyone knows that despite the fact that this is a great gentleman – he does not hand out to anyone on Purim more than a hundred NIS bill for everyone who comes to take to his institutions. Therefore, it is clear that if he knew that the disguised person standing in front of him was not the great “influencer” that he admires – Certainly he would not have received more than a hundred shekels like the others, and the one who decided to honor him and give him such a huge sum, is only due to his mistake in identifying the disguised person.
It was found that the estimate of the rich man’s opinion was that if the real influencer did arrive – the aforementioned would receive such a huge sum for his institutions, but everyone else would not receive more than one hundred new shekels. Therefore, the estimate of the rich man’s opinion proves to us that he did not intend to give it to this person at all and is a mistake and must be answered the check to its owner. And there is no difference if the vow was for petty or charitable purposes: Commitment by mistake – is a mistake.
Also, the rich man is faithful to say about himself that if he had known that this was a performance in disguise he would not have given more than one hundred shekels, and he must be believed that this giving was indeed by mistake.
And it seems to say that even the hundred shekels received by any other institution – the director of the institution lost, by deciding to deceive the gentleman, thereby humiliating and humiliating him with a donation he did not intend. What’s more, if his exit would have reached the gentleman by a straight path – he would have received the money promised to him, as the other donors received;
But since it has been proven that the rich man’s opinion in each of this giving It was a mistake – if so, the director of the institution did not win even one shekel, and even if the money was held, he must return it in its entirety to the man.
Sources: Shu’a Ch’om Rih 9a and Rama’a ibid., and Barz Sd in Rama’a, and in Sam’a ibid. SKI, the Laws of the Torah see 8.