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Video: Jewish Boys Only Ones to Help SpongeBob

In a stunt for his nightly TV show, comedian Jimmy Kimmel filmed a costumed cartoon character pretend to fall down and ask passersby for help getting up. For nearly 7 minutes, dozens of passersby all but ignore the helpless man, until a few Orthodox-Jewish young men turn up at the scene.

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46 Comments

  • Crown Heightser

    Costumed character are often worn by females.

    For bochurim (or boys over 9 years old) to touch, hug or hold a costumed character – can be very ossur!

    This is NOT a case of pikuach nefesh when only a chossid shoteh refuses to save a drowning female. That is called in shulchan oruch “a chossid shoiteh” – which is the same term used in shulchan oruch for someone eating in sukkah during rain downpour…

    • Curious

      How did you come to your conclusion? What kind of non-sense are you talking about??? Instead of seeing this as an ENORMOUS Kiddush Hashem you find a stupid and erroneous (search the word in a dictionary if you have to) way to turn such a positive and beautiful thing into a negative. Wow!

    • Milhouse

      It’s only forbidden derec chiba; if you don’t even know whether the person inside the costume is male or female, then the touch is definitely not derech chiba. To refrain from touch even without derech chiba is only midas chassidus, and is overridden by the mitzvah of helping someone in distress. So yes, one who would let another person lie helpless because that person might be female, and he wants to be noheg midas chassidus, is a chossid shoteh. As the saying goes, yenem’s gashmiyus iz main ruchniyus.

    • Square Pants

      So are you saying they should have first pulled down his square pants to determine whether they were permitted to help Sponge Bob up or not?

    • Actually

      In the Nitai Gavriel he clearly writes you are allowed and must help a girl who fell up from the ground if she is struggling to get up on her own, especially when it is done through clothing

    • Crown Heightser

      I am confessing that once at an amusement park I posed for a picture with a costumed character who was sitting on my lap.

      Well, “Mickey” Mouse turned out to be “Michelle” Mouse.

      I was not only horrified but also embarrassed by the incident.

      We wouldn’t taste food without knowing for certain if it is kosher or not.

      Why would we indulge in an area of “Giluy Arayos” or “Erva” without certainty that it is permitted????

      A sofek in a d’oraysa is l’chumra – when in doubt in an issur from the Torah, one must be stringent and assume it is forbidden.

    • K

      Indeed, I am told Chabad actually do eat in a sukkah even when it is pouring rain (I suppose many also will say the brocha le’shev basukah – a brocha l’vatallah in such circumstances).

      Therefore it is totally consistent that one who acts as a chossid shoteh by sukkah will also act as one when called to save a drowning “nekayvah”.

    • Dave

      Stop, just stop this supposed frum-kiet in the name of halacha. You clearly (just judging by your comment) like to find something wrong about anything and point it out even if it’s only a sofek.

      How about reversing that midda, take any situation and bring out the positive, it takes even less energy (since negativity brings stress and positivity brings happiness).

      Disclaimer: Do follow halacha. But being a mentch is a hachana to following halacha, since following halacha without mentchlich-kiet will bring chillul hashem.

    • Milhouse

      I was not only horrified but also embarrassed by the incident.

      I’m sure you were, but there was definitely no derech chibah, so you did not commit an issur. And since midas chassidus depends on knowledge, you weren’t over on that either. It’s just a matter of your personal and quite understandable feeling of horror and embarassment.

      We wouldn’t taste food without knowing for certain if it is kosher or not.

      Why would we indulge in an area of “Giluy Arayos” or “Erva” without certainty that it is permitted????

      Because here if there’s no knowledge there’s no issur.

      A sofek in a d’oraysa is l’chumra – when in doubt in an issur from the Torah, one must be stringent and assume it is forbidden.

      But helping someone is also a d’oraysa. (If you’re worried about a possibility that the person is a woman, you should also worry about the possibility that s/he is a Jew, and by letting him/her lie there you will be over on “ozov ta’azov”.)

    • Milhouse

      Yes, we do make a brocho in the rain, and it is not levatoloh. The simcha of the mitzvah (reinforced if necessary by alcohol) makes us not be in distress, and therefore we are obligated to remain.

    • Moe G

      Milhouse: Just addressing some of your points (and not the story of this thread with the boys), there is a difference whether the person being assisted is a yehudi or nochri. And if it’s a yehudi, there is a difference whether it is a shomer Torah u’Mitzvos or a frei person. The obligation to assist only applies to a yehudi. And if a yehudi, to a shomer Torah.

      So if there is a 50/50 possibility the person needing help to stand up is female (and as you said, they were unaware – but obviously it could have been either way), you need to account for the fact that there is a 50% possibility of it being the case.

      Another factor that needs to considered, is that it is very highly untypical for a shomer Torah to be acting in a Sponge Bob costume in the streets of Manhattan.

    • Milhouse

      The mitzvah to help another yid does not only apply to those who are currently shomrei mitzvos! What do you think Lubavitch is about?

    • Moe G

      Milhouse: Perhaps Lubavitch has a shitta of the halachic obligation to help applies equally whether the person is Shomer Torah or not, but the normative default shitta (as practiced among most other chasidim and most other Litvish Bnei Torah – but regardless of who, it certainly is another valid shitta) is that the halachic obligation only applies to a fellow Shmorei Torah.

      So according that that, the objections I mentioned in my previous comment would apply.

      Also, backtracking to your first comment above, the person knows there is a 50% possibility that the costumed figure is female. So you aren’t correct in assuming that there is “definitely” no derech chiba.

    • Bais Rivka Girl

      To Milhouse:

      I am shomer negiah. Are you saying I can touch a boy in a casual manner – which is not derech chiba? I always thought it is ossur and would feel guilty even when “accidental” touching takes place.

      Thanks for telling me that it is okay. That is so nice to know!!

    • K

      I must comment on the misleading comment posted by Milhouse!

      The “heter” of shelo b’derech chiba (as in shaking hands n greeting) is EXPLICITLY prohibited by MANY poskim: see Moadim Uzmanim vol 4, 316:1; Kreina D’Igrasa 1:162-163; Be’er Moshe 4:130 etc.

      Although R’ Moshe doesn’t blatently assur it, he writes that being meikil is difficult to rely upon: Igros Moshe Even HaEzer 1:56 (last paragraph); 4:32 (para 9).

      Lest anyone think that there is a “heter” from R’ Moshe (or any other posek except Milhouse), I will quote translation of R’ Moshe’s teshuvos:

      1) EH I #56 page 144
      “Concerning that which you saw people being lenient even those who are yirei shamayim – to offer their hand to a woman when she stuck her hand out. Perhaps they reasoned that this is not derech chibah and taavah – but l’maaseh this is difficult to rely on.”

      2) OH I 113 page 177
      “To offer one’s hand to a woman in the manner of those greeting others
      upon meeting. It is pashut that it is prohibited even for an unmarried
      woman since they are niddah and surely it is prohibited for a married
      woman”.

      3) EH IV 32.9 page 76
      “To offer one’s hand to a woman in the manner of those greeting others
      upon meeting. It is definitely pashut that it is prohibited as I have
      written OH I 113. That is because one needs to be concerned for the issue of derech chibah and taavah. But I wrote in EH I #56…that one is to dan l’kaf zechus those who are relying that it is not derech chibah and taavah to shake hands. But there I wrote that l’maashe it is difficult to rely on this. Furthermore I don’t see any inconsistency at all with that which I permitted a person to travel on a bus because there –
      there is basically no issue of chibah.”

      I know Chabad has “challenges” in tznius. This starts when so-called learned people (such as Milhouse) start handing out heterim as if they are the candyman in shul.

    • K

      Moe G is talking about the halacha of מורידין ולא מעלין, that those who are not shomer mitzvos are left in the pit they fell into without any offer of assistance.

      Whether you agree with it or not, this is what shulchan oruch paskens in Choshen Mishpat 425 and based on Gemara Avoda Zara 26b.

      (BTW – disagreeing with halacha is considered apikursus which is even worse than not being shomer mitzvos).

      Milhouse claims that Chabad does not accept this halacha.

    • K

      Making a brocha of leshev b’sukka when it is pouring rain rendering one pottur from sukkah – would be a bracha l’vataleh.

      The halacha in shulchan oruch is NOT to make a bracha of leshev b’sukka.

      Even on the first night when making kiddush in the sukka, a shechiyanu IS said but leshev b’sukka is NOT said.

      That is the halacha in shulchan oruch for all of klal yisroel.

      Milhouse wrote that a bracha IS said. Maybe for those not part of klal yisroel.

    • K

      In fact, if someone mistakenly made a bracha while it was pouring and remained eating in the sukka, he is required to repeat the bracha of leshev bsukka when it stops raining and he resumes eating. The first brocha had no validity and therefore he is required to repeat the brocha. This is basic halacha,

    • Ezra

      K seems to be unaware of an array of acharonim who say that indeed it is middas chassidus to eat in the sukkah when it rains, and some of whom even say that a berachah should be said. (Sources can be found in Otzar Minhagei Chabad Elul-Tishrei, pp. 303ff – http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=30510&st=&pgnum=318 .) But what are all those to him, when he has an excuse to slur Chabad and add to his yeshus?

    • K

      Ezra – you are a liar! There is NO possek that says one can make a bracha of leshev b’sukka in the pouring rain!

      You bring a source from Otzar Minhagei Chabad. Well, I checked the source because I knew that it is IMPOSSIBLE that anyone holds as you claim.

      Here is what it says:
      בליובאוויטש החל פעם לרדת גשם בשעת הישיבה בםוכה, ואמר הוד כ״ק
      אאמו״ר הרה״ק [מוהרש״ב] בדרך צחות: אסור לאכול בסוכה בשעת
      הגשם, אבל לברך [ברכת־המזון] מותר… (ס׳ השיחות תש״ד, עמי 23)

      You will see that brackets were ADDED to CLARIFY that when the Rebbe it is permitted to make a bracha when it is raining, he was talking about ברכת־המזון – bentching, NOT a bracha of leshev bsukka.

      You are both lying to the public and insulting your Rebbe when you make claims that he said something contrary to shulchan oruch.

    • Milhouse

      “Bais Rivka Girl“, no, you may not touch a boy in a “casual manner”, because you cannot guarantee that it will not be derech chibah. It’s terribly easy to fool yourself that you won’t feel anything, and 90% of the time you may even be right, but the yetzer horo is setting you up for that one time that you will feel chiba. But if you touched him by accident, and you know for a fact that you didn’t feel any kind of attraction, then you did nothing wrong and there’s no need to feel guilty about it.

      K, you have just shown yourself to be
      1. a fool,
      2. ignorant, and
      3. incapable of reading simple English.

      Ezra did not write that the source for eating in the sukah in the rain, and making a bracha, is from Mondshine’s sefer. He wrote that the sources can be found there, and indeed they can, at great length.

      Everyone knows that we do eat in the sukah in the rain, and we do say a brocho, and when it stops raining we do not repeat the brocho. You are a fool to deny it, especially HERE ON A LUBAVITCHER SITE, where every reader knows what we do! The gemoro says הרוצה לשקר ירחיק עדותו, but you are doing the opposite, telling us what we do, when we know it’s not true!

      Go back to the link Ezra provided, and read it, and you’ll see the copious sources cited for our practise, taking up 3 pages. But for the fact that it is our practise, and that the Rebbe commanded it, go back one page, to page 302, paragraph 129, where this is stated explicitly.

      You have also shown that you can’t be trusted to read a simple Igros Moshe. All the teshuvos that you cited make it clear that without derech chiba there is NO ISSUR AT ALL. The difficulty lies in ensuring that there will not be derech chiba. However in this case, where there is no information about the character’s gender, and his/her form is not at all visible, there is definitely no chiba, and therefore no difficulty in permitting it.

      Moe G, this is a Lubavitcher site, so youi can take all your stuck-up Litvishe “poskim” who hold ahavas yisroel and “ozov ta’azov imo” don’t apply to those who are not shomer mitzvos, and stick them where the sun don’t shine. Learn Tanya perek 32, and learn that all your so-called “poskim” are WRONG. A yid is a yid is a yid, no matter how he behaves, and the mitzvah to help him remains the same.

      As for “moridin velo ma’alin”, the Frierdiker Rebbe already said that these halochos appear only at the end of Choshen Mishpot for a reason: first make sure you keep the whole rest of the four sections of Shulchon Oruch, and then you can worry about it.

    • K

      Let’s apply that logic to ALL areas of halacha:

      The halochos [of Purim] appear only at the end of [Orach Chaim] for a reason: first make sure you keep the whole rest of the section, and then you can worry about it….

      A “logical” heter for not keeping the halochos of Purim.

      Surely a frum Yid, much less a Rebbe, did not say such words and if he did, he did not mean it the way it is applied.

    • Milhouse

      This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe said. I don’t care whether you like it or you don’t like it, tzi es gefelt dir oder nisht, this is the way it is. The whole concept of lo maalin and moridin is irrelevant, we have a chiyuv of ahavas yisroel to every Jew, af al pi shechotoh, and even one who is only besheim yisroel yechuneh. This is what the Rebbe insisted on, over and over; surely you do not question that! Ello mai, you think the Rebbe was wrong. Well, you are not even close to being his bar plugta; in the presence of his opinion, your opinion simply doesn’t exist. Again, take a Tanya and learn chapter LeV, and you will learn something that you never knew.

  • C'mon #2

    The costumed person clearly had a man’s voice.
    This was a great kiddush Hashem!
    I, a bubby, have tripped and fallen both in Crown Heights and Boro Park, and B”H men and women stopped right away and offered to help me up, help which I B”H didn’t need but which they were right to offer.

  • TO Croen Heightster

    A Sponge is considered a plant so there is no Ossur. Not touching a plant because you are uncertain of its sex is considered the behavior of a “chossid shoiteh”

  • cold water

    Sorry to throw cold water on this, but maybe most other folks there realized from the start that it was just a prank? As the host said, they do the same thing from time to time at that exact location in front of the studio.

    Possibly not shown on the video are also signs of the camera crew and other official security/emergency personnel that everyone else may have seen that gave it away that this was just a set up.

    When an “experiment” like this is tried too often it gets to be like “the boy who cried wolf” and people get tired of it and stop responding.

    Meanwhile, who gave them the right to conduct this “experiment” on a public sidewalk where they interfere with the right of way of other people?

    Nevertheless I agree that the boys, even though they fell for it, are to be commended.

    • Milhouse

      Breaking the halacha is a chilul hashem, not a kidush hashem. If there really were an issur I don’t see how it could be overridden.

  • feivish

    There is an entire article on Heightsers comment by Rabbi Hoffman on Yeshiva world

  • Dolores O.

    Very proud of our boys. They saw something in distress and assisted while no one else cared to help…be it Sponge Bob today, it could be my Bubbe tomorrow…Mazel!

  • K

    Milhouse wrote: “To refrain from touch even without derech chiba is only midas chassidus”

    That is contrary to all gedolei haposkim.

    Even Reb Moshe who does not explicitly asser shelo b’derech chiba (as in a hand shake) still says it is difficult to be lenient.

    Other poskim eplictly say it is osser.

    Keeping something which is osser is not midas chassidus (lifnim mishuras hadin) but basic frumkeit.

    • Milhouse

      That only touch derech chiba is forbidden is plain halocho. All poskim agree with this. The only difficulty lies in ensuring that it will not be derech chibo. As one of my rebbes said, “for every nine perfectly innocent handshakes, one will be very guilty”. These are devorim shebelev, and ein apotrupos la’arayos.

      Miidas chassidus is to refrain even when one can be certain that it will not be derech chiba, such as with ones sister.

    • K

      So Sponge Bob’s sister should not shake hands with him or touvh hium – as a midaas chassidus, but others are not allowed to mikar hadin as paskened by the poskim EVEN sheo b’derech chiba.

    • Milhouse

      You’re not making sense. All the poskim agree that wIthout derech chibo there is NO ISSUR. That is why a sister is permitted al pi din, and it’s only midas chassidus not to touch her. In most cases touch is not allowed because we can’t be sure that it’s not derech chibah. In the case of a person of unknown gender, concealed in a costume that gives no clues about his/her appearance, there is no possibility at all of chibah, so there is no issur. At most it would be a midas chassidus, which is overridden by the mitzvah of helping someone. (Just as you worry that the person might be a woman, you also have to worry that he might be Jewish, and thus subject to the possuk “ozov ta’azov”.)

    • K

      Milhouse wrote: As for “moridin velo ma’alin”, the Frierdiker Rebbe already said that these halochos appear only at the end of Choshen Mishpot for a reason: first make sure you keep the whole rest of the four sections of Shulchon Oruch, and then you can worry about it.

      WOW! Let’s apply that “logic” to ALL areas of halacha:

      Here is one example:

      The halochos [of Purim] appear only at the end of [Orach Chaim] for a reason: first make sure you keep the whole rest of the section, and then you can worry about it….

      This would create a “logical” heter for not keeping the halochos of Purim! (Or the last halachos of any segment – which would only apply after keeping the whole rest of that segment).

      Surely a frum Yid, much less a Rebbe, did not say such words and if he did, he did not mean it the way it is applied.

    • K

      Milhouse says: Just as you worry that the person might be a woman, you also have to worry that he might be Jewish, and thus subject to the possuk “ozov ta’azov”

      That is TOTAL aam haratzus. Are you not aware of the concept “ir she’rubo akum” – a city that the majority are goyim?

      In such a case we are NOT choshesh for the minority of Jews when it comes to ALL halochos that the identity is unknown such as that of the ba’al ha’aveyda (-owner of lost property), or the unknown people in sa’kana etc.

      In contrast, the possibility of the gender is 50% (mechtza al mechtza).

      Hence, your lomdus is op’geshlogen.

    • Milhouse

      You have a point about the majority versus half, but is a person lying in costume on a midtown Manhattan street considered kovua, or porush? Did he separate himself from all Manattanites, or is he fixed in the very heart of Manhattan, and thus kemechtza al mechtza.

      The real answer is it doesn’t matter, because the whole argument was only for the purpose of taking it to the level of the nudnik who’s worried about this in the first place.

      The truth is that there is no problem. Helping any person, even a goy, is at least a midah tovah and midas chassidus, if not an actual enumerated mitzvah in the 613; that in the case of a yid it’s also a mitzvah of ozov ta’azov is a bonus, but even without that it’s the right thing to do. And thus, even if there were a midas chassidus in not giving the person a hand just in case s/he is female, this would be overridden by the (at least) midas chassidus of helping him/her.

      And the truth is that in the absence of any indication that the person is female, I don’t see how it’s even a normal midas chassidus to avoid touching his/her hand. Rather than midas chassidus, I would call it fake prishus, of the kind that the gemoroh in Sotah criticizes so harshly (in the sugya of the 7 kinds of prushim).

    • Milhouse

      Here’s the bottom line: If you were in such a situation, would you hesitate to help this person?! If your son was there, would you want him to help, or to walk past? If he walked past, would you be proud of his prishus, or ashamed of his poor middos?

  • #2??

    idk if u heard but i think he sent out a guy from his show who he always uses. stop making everything bad!

  • Yitz

    Derech Eretz Kadma L’Torah. The boys are a Kiddush Hashem. There is NO safek.
    Bunch of self-righteous fools posting here.