Shelach: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with this week's insight: Is there a choice or no choice? The yeshiva student who 'wiped the plate' and the brilliant idea of the 'Chasam Sofer.' At the conclusion…

00:00 Please. In connection with what we learned here in the Gemara about whether there is bereirah or there is no bereirah, they tell a story about a young man who once arrived at the yeshiva in Pressburg. It was a very large and famous yeshiva at the time. He had come from far away, and in those days there was no dormitory. The students were assigned to local householders, and each householder would take a student for one day a week and give him a meal. This young man had not eaten for several days. They sent him to a householder for a meal. The man served him a portion, but he was so hungry that he ate it all—wiped the plate clean, as they say. The householder couldn’t understand it. A yeshiva student behaves like that? It isn’t polite. You leave a little; you don’t eat like that. So he went to the Chasam Sofer, who was the rosh yeshiva, and said, “Is this how the students behave? Is that how they conduct themselves?” The Chasam Sofer told him, “I’ll give you a question to ask the young man, and from his answer you’ll understand why he behaved that way. What’s the question? The Gemara tells us that Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s donkey would not eat food that had not been tithed. Now, if that donkey knew how to learn, it should have known the halachah that one may ‘fix one’s eyes on one side and eat from the other.’ In other words, it could have intended for what remained to serve as the tithe. But the donkey didn’t eat at all. Why not? Ask him that question, and from his answer you’ll know why he ate everything.” Well, the next time the young man came, the householder asked him the question. The young man didn’t know the answer, so he was embarrassed to return. He didn’t come back and remained hungry. The Chasam Sofer immediately realized that the young man

02:13 wasn’t eating, so he called him over and explained the answer. He said, “The donkey reasoned as follows: If I leave a little, I’ll be following the halachah of ‘fixing my eyes on one side and eating from the other.’ But what will the householder think? That he gave me too much food. Next time he’ll give me less. Then I’ll leave some for the tithe again, and he’ll give me even less. Eventually I’ll starve to death. So the donkey reasoned: I won’t eat until the householder tithes the food himself. Then I can eat it all.” And that’s the answer to why the young man behaved that way.