To Each His Own

“You ever see kids for kleptomania, Reb Yaakov?”

That was the question my friend Rabbi Mendel King asked me. He’s been the mashgiach of a mainstream yeshivah for gap-year bochurim for close to 40 years, and called me to discuss a talmid of his who was causing a bit of upset among the other boys.

Had I ever seen kleptomania, the rare condition whereby people have the recurrent and irresistible urge to steal useless and inexpensive objects, living lives of secret shame? Maybe a few times. Had I met kids who had stolen stuff from their roommates, friends, and enemies for a million different reasons? Only a few hundred times.

Rabbi King began to describe his talmid, Yonatan Levi, as “a really nice kid” from “a very solid family” in the Five Towns who had apparently made it through high school without any challenges. But things began to unravel the first week of yeshivah, after he’d taken another bochur’s expensive headphones and had “admitted to an honest mistake because he owned a pair that looked similar.” A month later there were some missing energy drinks and other small things. There were some suspicions but no formal accusations, and besides, Yonatan was always so sweet, charming, and apologetic if he felt he’d hurt someone or overstepped his boundaries. But now here we were, close to Purim, and Yonatan was found wearing another student’s expensive, high-end belt.