< 1 min read
Many of the shuls in the local neighborhood fielded a baseball team, forming the shul baseball league. Beth Israel challenged Beth Tikvah to a game in a week’s time and Rabbi Goldberg felt that he needed to do something to support his kids. So he gave a special contribution of one hundred dollars to the captain, with the direction that the money should be used to buy bats, balls, gloves, or anything else that might help to win the game.
On the day of the game, the Rabbi was somewhat surprised to observe nothing new in the team’s paraphernalia. He called the captain to him.
"I don't see any new bats, or balls, or gloves," he said.
"We don’t have anything like that," the captain admitted.
"But I gave you one hundred dollars to buy them," the Rabbi exclaimed.
"Well, you see Rabbi," came the explanation, "you told us to spend it for bats, or balls, or gloves, or anything that we thought might help to win the game, so we gave it to the umpire."