Rav Henoch Leibowitz and the Phone Line Thief

One summer, the bachurim went up with the rosh yeshiva to a summer camp. It was very important for the rosh yeshiva to have a phone line. Besides the rosh yeshiva’s personal needs, it was necessary for the all the members of K’lal Yisrael who sought his da’as Torah and counsel. One bachur took it upon himself to arrange this phone line. The camp was somewhat remote. It took considerable time and effort to arrange for a new phone line to be installed and activated before the rosh yeshiva’s arrival. Baruch Hashem, the bachur succeeded. Yet, during the first few days of camp, the rosh yeshiva experienced constant phone outages.

The bachur realized that someone was tampering with the phone lines at the network interface box and surreptitiously connecting his own phone. The bachur repaired the problem, only to have it happen again. He decided to conduct a “stakeout” to see who the culprit was. His patience was rewarded when the culprit came to change the wires. He ran at full speed to catch the culprit in the act. But on the way, he passed by the rosh yeshiva’s door. Apparently, the rosh yeshiva and his rebbetzin had gotten wind of what was happening. They called the bachur who was in hot pursuit to come inside. They made him sit until he calmed down. The rosh yeshiva and rebbetzin then told him, “This isn’t the proper thing to do. Now that you know who the responsible individual is, approach him like a mentch!”