What a difference are some ultra-Orthodox Jews from Abba Shaul ben Botnit (and not in a good way) TB Beitzah 29

There is a tension between what is permitted on the Festival in order to increase joy and what is forbidden to retain its special sanctity by not treating it as a weekday. Generally speaking what is impossible to do before the holiday when it comes to preparing food is permitted on the Festival. Whatever preparation is possible to be done before the onset of the holiday and is not prepared, may not be done on Yom Tov. TB daf TB Beitzah 29 provides us with worthy role models of truly religious and observant Jews.

“The mishna recounted an incident involving Abba Shaul ben Botnit, a Sage who was also a grocer, who would fill his measures on the eve of a Festival and give them to his customers on the Festival. A tanna taught in a baraita: He would do this even on the intermediate days of a Festival, in order to prevent dereliction of Torah study in the study hall. Since he wanted to spend most of his day in the study hall and not have to interrupt his study to carry out measurements, he would measure for his customers at night, when it was not a time of study.

“The Sages taught in a baraita: Abba Shaul ben Botnit collected three hundred earthenware jugs of wine, to which he thought he was not entitled due to the clarity of the measures, as he thought that he had unfairly profited from the foam at the top of the liquid he measured. And his colleagues, similarly God-fearing grocers, collected three hundred earthenware jugs of oil, which they thought were not rightly theirs due to the draining of the measures; they were concerned that because they had measured for their customers using their own vessels, they might not have drained the entire measure from their containers into the customers’ vessels. And they brought these jugs of wine and oil to Jerusalem before the Temple treasurers, as they did not want to benefit from possibly stolen goods.

“The treasurers said to them: You need not do this, as all buyers take into account the foam and what is left in the sellers’ vessels and pay with this in mind. They said to them: Just like the buyers give up their claim to it, we too do not wish to benefit from this, even if strictly speaking it is not considered stolen property.

“The treasurers said to them: Since you are so stringent with yourselves, use the wine and oil for communal needs. As it is taught in a baraita: If one stole and does not know from whom he stole, he should use the stolen items for communal needs, thereby repaying all of the Jewish people. The Gemara asks: What are communal needs? Rav Ḥisda said: He should finance the digging of cisterns, ditches, and caves, for storing water for travelers.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Unfortunately we have too many cases of Jews who would do well to follow the example of those God-fearing people mentioned in today’s daf. I remember reading in the Jewish Week and expose of ultra-Orthodox yeshivot receiving millions of dollars of grant money earmarked for Internet and other telecommunications technology, but not one penny was used for those purposes! Not only did they cheat their students out of necessary skills needed for the modern world, the schools stole money from the government. This fraud is a real desecration of God’s name, a Hillul Hashem! To read the full article follow this link: withhttps://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/part-i-haredi-schools-reap-millions-in-federal-tech-funds/