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How can someone receive divine reward for unintentionally helping others, like when lost money benefits a poor person who finds it? The shiur distinguishes between reward for the act of giving versus credit for others' benefit from your property. This principle means we accumulate zechuyos whenever people benefit from our example or teaching, multiplying our spiritual impact beyond our direct actions.
Rabbi Zweig begins by expressing his long-standing confusion with a teaching from Chazal found in Rashi (רש"י): when a person loses money and someone finds it and benefits from it, the original owner receives divine reward (bracha). This seemed counterintuitive - how can one receive credit for something they didn't intentionally do? The source for this teaching comes from Parshas Ki Seitzei (24:19), regarding the mitzvah (מצוה) of shikcaha (forgotten sheaves) - when harvesting, if you forget something in the field, don't go back for it but leave it for the poor, convert, orphan and widow, and Hashem (ה׳) will bless you. Rashi's commentary initially seemed contradictory to Rabbi Zweig. Rashi states that even though the mitzvah came without intention, 'kal v'chomer' (how much more so) if done intentionally, and derives from this that if money falls from your hand and a poor person finds and benefits from it, you receive blessing. Rabbi Zweig questioned why Rashi interrupts his flow to mention the kal v'chomer about intentional giving before returning to unintentional benefit.
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Parshas Ki Seitzei 24:19
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