[Avodah] inconceivable-- Ben Sorer uMoreh

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 07:32:23PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: This actually happened to a chaver of mine "Avi"
: It's YT in Wash Heights.
: A Black Man approaches Avi
: Please!  I need money to feed my baby milk!
...
: BM follows up: I'm Jewish from Israel and repeats his request in Modern
: Hebrew!

I think it's open and shut that you give him the money. However, there
are enough honest shnorers to qualify it as a safeiq piquach nefesh, and
on the chance that this person who doesn't look like a Yehudi but knows
Abazi"t isn't a Yehudi, there is still mishum eivah and darkhei Shalom.
("Shalom" capitalized in a nod to RAL's shitah that "darkhei Shalom"
is an instance of vehalakha didrakhav.)

If one thinks that rov nachri panhandlers aren't really in that
kind of need just because they say so, at least a miut dishechichah
of Hebrew-speaking shnorers are.

What would I do? Give the guy milk, even if that means borrowing from a
neighbor. If he meant formula, and he actually knows what kind of formula,
it's even more likely to be honest. Assuming Avi doesn't know who in
the kehillah uses which formula, therefore can't borrow the right kind
of formula, he could give the man money with confidence in the probably
truth of the story.

You don't write: Did this happen to Avi on YT sheini? (Although the above
should be true on YT rishon.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha