May a gabbai add from his own pocket when the synagogue was late in paying the baal koreh
Question
Shalom,
A synagogue that pays the baal koreh a salary once delayed the payment. The gabbai wants to compensate the baal koreh and pay him an additional amount from his own pocket. Is this permitted?
Answer
Shalom and blessings,
This is permitted, and ideally he should separate the payment of the principal from the additional amount.
Source
Siman ק"ס se’if י"ג: A person is permitted to give his fellow money so that he will lend to another, since he is not lending to the lender himself. Similarly here, the interest does not come from the synagogue’s funds but from the gabbai’s pocket, and he did not accept personal liability. Nonetheless, in the Shulchan Aruch there is a condition that the one giving the interest must not later go back and take the money from the borrower, and the borrower must also not say, “So-and-so is giving on my behalf.” And there are those who say that it is forbidden for the borrower to appease his friend to give interest on his behalf. The Shach rules in accordance with the anonymous opinion that is lenient, allowing the borrower to appease the one giving the interest (see Pithei Teshuva).
In our case, it requires analysis whether this is considered as if the synagogue appeased the gabbai to give, or whether it is considered like saying, “So-and-so will give on my behalf,” which is forbidden according to all opinions, since here the gabbai is the representative of the synagogue. If another person were giving the interest for the synagogue, it would be forbidden for the gabbai to say to the baal koreh, “So-and-so will give on my behalf,” and also to appease him to give, according to those who forbid. Here, since it is the same person, one must examine whether this appears as if he is acting as the agent of the synagogue. Nonetheless, it seems that one may be lenient in this in a one-time case, where it is possible that the gabbai is giving the additional amount because of his own negligence in transferring the money, and therefore he is not giving on behalf of the synagogue at all.
