One of R' Adda bar Ahava's praiseworthy deeds for long life on Daf 20b was that he never called anyone by his nickname and some say by his surname, if it had a negative connotation. Yet the Mishna on Daf 26a calls one of the wood donors family "Gonvey Eli". Is that not negative?
Thank you
alex lebovits, toronto, canada
Actually on rare occasions it is praiseworthy to be called a thief.
The Gemara below 28a relates the story about why they were called "Gonvey Eli". The ruling kingdom passed a decree that one must not bring wood for the Mizbeach, or bring Bikurim to Yerushalayim. The good Jews covered over the baskets of Bikurim with dried fruits and carried the "Eli" (a large wooden utensil used for grinding food) on their shoulders on the pretext that they were taking these to make pressed dates. This is how they managed to deceive the guards and smuggle the Bikurim into the Beis Hamikdash. So sometimes it is a compliment to be called a cheat!!
One of the leaders of the Torah underground in the USSR was Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber zt'l, who spent years learning and teaching Torah in the Russian labor camps. Afterwards he came to Eretz Yisrael and most of the educational efforts for Russian Jews here have his strong imprint behind them. He once said that in Russia everyone lived by stealing and cheating. So if you wanted to learn Torah in the USSR you had to cheat the communist officials, and manage to steal an opportunity to learn about Yiddishkeit.
There is a Halachic source for this. Chazal say that one should be "Kovaya" a time to learn Torah (i.e. "fix" times to learn Torah). See SHA'AREI TESHUVAH OC 156:2 in the name of HAFLA'AH who writes that the word Kovaya does not actually mean "fix" but really means "steal". Sometimes one has a very busy schedule and the only way to get some time for learning Torah is to "steal" it!!!
KOL TUV
D. Bloom
So if I am working for a Jewish employer, would it be permitted (or maybe recommended?) to "steal" some of the time at my employers work to learn torah, while my Jewish employer thinks he is paying me for my time devoted to his mundane work? Would my Jewish employer get part of the mitzvah of my learning b/c he unknowingly paid me for it? What about a non-Jewish employer (permitted/mitzvah)?
Of course the HAFLA'AH was referring to "stealing" one's own time, not to stealing somebody else's time.
See the Gemara (above end 23a) which relates that when the Rabanim went to Abba Chilkia to ask him to pray for rain they found him in the middle of his work and greeted him, but he did not reply. Afterwards they asked him to explain his behaviour and he replied that since he was a hired daily worker he did not say Shalom to them, so as not to waste his employer's time.
MESILAS YESHARIM (near the begining of ch. 11 - "Bi'fratei Midas ha'Nekius") cites this as an example of how far the prohibition against stealing can extend. He writes further [DH velo'Od] that even if a worker does a Mitzvah when he is supposed to be working for his employer, this will not be considered favorably by Hash-m, but rather is conidered a transgresion. (See also the Gemara in Chulin 94a that it is forbidden to deceive a Nochri).
Therefore our advice will have to be limited to "stealing" from one's own spare time to add on to Torah studies. It is also a wonderful idea to arrange a Shiur during the lunch-break for anyone interested. Many lunchtime Dafyomi Shiurim exist, and make an excellent opportunity to learn Torah in the middle of the workday.
KOL TUV
D. Bloom