Leading Haredi Rabbi, Once Confused Over Credit Card Use, Has Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars Stolen From His Home

Rabbi Aaron Leib Shteinman is one of the top two leading rabbis of the haredi world. Today charities he collects money for are hundreds of thousands of dollars poorer.

Theft At Home Of Leading Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman
Audacious Burglary
By Chaim Weiss • 5 Towns Jewish Times

Rabbi Aaron Leib Shteinman is one of the top two leading Rabbis of the Haredi world. It is therefore a shock that while he was attending a meeting in Betar Illit on Thursday night, thieves broke into his Bnei Brak home and stole $50,000 in cash. The amount stolen in checks was even more - exceeding “hundreds of thousands” according to Kikar.net. The theft occurred in the Rabbi's home, 5 Chazon Ish Street, in Bnei Brak.…

The Rabbi returned home after 10:00pm on Thursday with his entourage and they noticed everything was in disarray. The funds were given to the Rabbi to distribute. 

Police investigating the break-in of the Shteinman home believe that it was an inside job - someone that had a key and knew the Rabbi's schedule. 

From a halachic point of view, since his home was locked, Rabbi Shteinman is not considered responsible to repay the stolen moneys to the charities that were to distribute them.

Rabbi Shteinman is no stranger to confusion about good monetary practice. 

For example, back in December 2005, Rabbi Shteinman's confusion about credit card usage made news on Jewsih blogs, including this one:

On The Main Line has posted a section of a fundrasing brochure from a Bnei Brak-based nonprofit describing the visit of a gadol (haredi rabbinic leader), a leading signer of the Rabbi Slifkin Ban, to the nonprofit's offices:

Why are so many stations necessary?" he asked. The telephones at the stations of the steady operators were ringing non-stop...."But how is it that a person contributes over the phone? How does the money come in?" he asked. The gabbai [assistant] briefly explained how a credit card works.

"But the contributor doesn't even sign anything... he's contributing over the phone!" Harav Steinman asked again. "But what if he changes his mind?" he went on....It was astounding to see to what extent maran, shlit"a, who is immersed in Torah study day and night, is cut off from the financial nature of our daily lives in the modern world. At the same time, it was fascinating to see how quickly he caught on when the matter was outlined in the briefest detail.…

I don't know who's more at fault here – the people who entrust charity funds to the care of Rabbi Shteinman or Rabbi Shteinman himself.

Essentially, someone like Rabbi Shteinman is considered a watchman. The issue at hand halakhicly is whether or not the watchman did the minimum required of him to safeguard the items – in this case, the money and checks – he agreed to watch.

The idea that a simple locked door is enough to save Rabbi Shteinman from halakhic liability for what could be almost $1,000,000 may be shocking. After all, you would think a bank account or bank vault would be the correct place to store hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Indeed, any normal person would deposit that money in a bank account or bank vault for safekeeping.

Yet, somehow, in the haredi calculus Rabbi Shteinman is held to be exempt from this level of normalcy. And with that exemption, thousands of haredim will fall a little bit deeper into poverty.