The Little I Know:
I wasn’t talking about this situation or about what the seforim say. I was addressing a general statement which you made, namely “we learned in high school science class, that rewards or punishments that are not nearly immediate to the behavior have no effect on modifying it.” The fact is that the reward/punishment does not need to be immediate (although it definitely can be more effective especially when first programming the behavior). That is the concept of reinforcement schedules. If your high school science class did not teach that then it was lacking something. Though you definitely one-upped me in the “meeting Skinner department”.