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speaking, a very wealthy and religious member of the The people present were shocked, and asked the shochet:
community stood up and began to attack the Yishuv “in ‘If you were willing to return the money to the boy, why
the name of Torah and mitzvot.” When he finished, Rav did you also take an oath? And if you were willing to swear
Shmuel stood up and said: “I will tell you all a story.” that you didn’t take the money, why did you give him the
25 rubles?’ The shochet explained: ‘If I had given him the
“A young man from a different city was learning in a money and not taken an oath, you would have said that
yeshiva in a small town. His father would periodically I stole the money from the boy, but now I was scared of
send him money to pay for his expenses, which the father making a false oath and so I returned the money to him.
would send to the local shochet’s address for safekeeping
to ensure the money would reach his son. One time, the And if I had only taken an oath and not given money to
the boy, you would have suspected me in your hearts of
young man received a letter from his father, who wrote swearing falsely for the sake of 25 rubles. But now that
that he had sent 25 rubles to pay for his expenses. The I have given the boy this money and also taken an oath,
young man was surprised, because he had never received you must all admit that I have sworn truthfully and there
the money! He quickly ran to the shochet to ask him why,
but the shochet claimed he had never received the money. is no reason to suspect me of any wrongdoing!’”
When the young man received another letter from his Rav Shmuel turned to the wealthy man and said: “If you
father saying that he had sent the money to the shochet, want me to believe that your opposition to the Yishuv
he went to the local rabbi and brought the shochet to a din “for the sake of Torah and mitzvot” stems from a truly
Torah, a dispute in front of the local rabbinic court. After pure heart, first give money to support the settling of
hearing both sides of the case, the rabbi ruled that the the Land and then make your claims against the Yishuv.
shochet would have to take an oath that he did not steal Otherwise, I have complete permission to say that all
the money, and then he would be free from any obligation your claims against the Yishuv “for the sake of Torah and
to the young man. At this point, the shochet took 25 rubles mitzvot” derive solely from your desire to be freed of your
from his pocket and placed them in front of the rabbi to financial obligation to support it!
give to the young man, and then stood up and swore that
he had never received the 25 rubles from the man’s father.

SCHOOLS DEPARTMENT
Congratulations to the Winning Schools of the

International Pesach Kahoot Competition!

We are pleased to announce the winners of the International Pesach Kahoot Competition,
which saw participation from over 2,000 students from schools all around the world.

$1,000 Grand Prize: TTH Barilan, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pizza and ice cream prize winners:
BJCF Primary School, Manchester, UK • Akiba-Schechter, Chicago, IL
Yeshivat Noam, Paramus, NJ • Ohr Avner, Zhytomyr, Ukraine

We would like to express our gratitude to all the participating schools who took
part in this competition. We hope this competition will connect and bring unity to
Jewish schools from all over the world.

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