Milk Money     

One day, a distinguished-looking man in his mid-thirties walked into his office, asking for Rabbi Ginzberg. When my father acknowledged that he was Rabbi Ginzberg, the man took out a checkbook and said he wanted to right a wrong from more than 25 years prior.

He explained that when he had been a high school student in the yeshivah, the rule was that every student was entitled to one small milk container for breakfast. But he liked milk, and on most days he helped himself to a second one.

He didn’t finish high school; instead he went to learn in Eretz Yisrael and had remained there. He was now married with children and serving as a rosh kollel in Bnei Brak. His elderly mother wasn’t well and he hadn’t seen her in years. This trip back to the States to visit her was his first opportunity to make amends for taking an extra milk each day so many years earlier, and he wanted to know how much he owed the yeshivah.

My father ztz”l, who didn’t remember this student, was incredibly moved by his sincerity and honesty. He said that while he would love to just be mochel him for taking the milk, the yeshivah’s money was mamon shel hekdesh and he had no right to be mochel on its behalf. However, there was no way to actually calculate the cost of the milk from so many years ago.