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Mitzva of Returning Stolen Property + When Victim Is/Isn’t Aware of the Theft or Identity of the Thief [#112]

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Mitzva of Returning Stolen Property + When Victim Is/Isn't Aware of the Theft or Identity of the Thief

secretly return Mitzva of Returning Stolen Property + When Victim Is/Isn't Aware of the Theft or Identity of the Thief
Mitzva of Returning Stolen Property + When Victim Is/Isn't Aware of the Theft or Identity of the Thief [#112]
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A short explanation of the special mitzva of returning a stolen item or money. Also we'll cover what to do in cases where the victim has no knowledge of the item having been stolen or missing, or doesn't know the identity of the one who stole

What is the case? Do you have to ask Mechila from them? Can you secretly return the item without notifying them? So in regards to returning stolen property, so today we're going to be Speaking using a statement called the halachas of other people's money by Rabbi Yisrael Pinchas Barner. As well, we're going to be going through the psukim, and the source of the Torah, to the Shulchan Aruch, and Marendei Poskim.

The Pasuk, which speaks about and tells us that there is a mitzvah sasei, a mitzvah in the Torah, of returning an item which is stolen. Really, if someone doesn't have Avera, he would do tshuva to fix it up. Here we get a mitzvah for doing it, and the Pasuk is, In Vayikra, parik hei, pasuk chavgimu, pasuk says, V'hayah k'yakhta v'ashein, v'hei sheves agzayla asher gazal, the person returns an item that he had stolen.

O, es ha'oyshik asher ashak, that's talking about wages, or monetary items that you owed another person, that you held back. O, es ha'pikadoin, or you actually have a physical item, like merchandise. Or a collateral item that we are holding back from, giving to person. In those cases that a person would give them back to the person he would fulfill, this is codified in.

We bring over here how great the mitzvah is of doing this form of chuvah, of paying back. Because Moshe, Moshe Feinstein says, In cheilat kudshim, semen tesvav anav beiz. He says over here, shekazef she'asei, that doing this mitzvah she'asei, of paying back, is minatik mamesh esalav she'aseyu kiloy haya.

It actually disconnects this prohibition that a person had done, as if it had never happened. That's how great this is, when a person will fix what had been stolen or taken, or paying back this money or the item which is owed back to the person. So, he breaks it up into different cases of returning goods that were physically stolen, paying for merchandise or services that were received and not paid for, repaying defaulted loans, paying wages which were earned but not paid, returning merchandise or money or deposits that would be held by others, and returning money or merchandise obtained through deception.

All of those are included in this policy. When a person would pay back, he would be kind and fulfilling that mitzvah, so to say. Now, when a person decides to do tshuva, he should do it immediately, he shouldn't wait until right before Yom Kippur. The Mishnah B'ruah brings it in. Shulchan Sementei Tafresh Zav, by the halakhas of B'n Matthias, appeasing your friend before Yom Kippur, he brings over here is that, when it comes to, you have the item, you want to pay it back to the person, He says a person shouldn't delay, and it's just like any time mitzvah, like saying bir kasam mazun, right after you eat, or also saying kirish shema in the right time, or blowing a shofar, those types of mitzvahs is that you should not delay them at all, especially in this case where you did a lav of a person that's stolen, and you want to fix it, and that was an isr d'oray, so a person should come to run and fix it as soon as he can.

That was the lesson of the Mishnub Burah, that he's bringing in the Shariah So, when it comes to these halachas again, so, what do you do in a case where the person doesn't know if the item was at least stolen at all, or he doesn't know who the item was. So we'll break it into the three cases. The first case, oh, and also just to point out, is even after the person pays back the item, he has to do tshuva afterwards.

He has to repent, and he has to resolve, he has to acknowledge that he did something wrong, and he has to resolve. that he's not going to do that again in the future. Only then can he get a kapara. The Rambam says in Hix Chuvah that even if a person pays back for damage or bodily harm that he had caused another person, if he doesn't do chuvah, then Hashem holds back the kapara from that person.

It's a very important point to be made. So when a person doesn't know That items were stolen from him at all and he doesn't know who was paid, who stole from him. So the halacha is that you don't have to notify him and you can secretly just pay him back because he doesn't know it was stolen and you also don't have to ask Mechila from him because he, he was never anguished because he never even knew that the item was stolen.

So in such a case as it brings over here, you can secretly just pay him back and you don't even have to ask Mechila. You can just restock the item or you can send the money back secretly to the person. And he doesn't have to be known that it was you. In a case where the guy knows that the item was stolen, he just doesn't know that it was you who had stolen the item from him.

So of course you have to return the item back to him, but you can write an anonymous letter asking for Mechila, of course, because you caused him anguish, he knows the item was taken from him. So you have to ask Mechila, but you don't have to reveal your identity. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Iggur's Moshe Chushen Mishpat Chelek Aleph, Siman Pei Chas, says that it is better still that you should disclose your identity when you apologize.

Third case is when the victim knows That who took the item from him and he knows what the item was that was taken. In such a case, you should give it back to him and you should let him know that this is the item that you took. Because if you would secretly just return the item to him, he may think, Oh, this is just money that came to him.

He's still going to feel bad about that other money that someone stole from him. So you have to let him know that, no, no, it's that money that was taken from him or that item that he's getting paid for. And therefore he'll feel comforted that he has that back. You can't just secretly give him the money because he knows it was missing.

He has to know that he He got that thing back. As well, you would have to ask him, Mechila, as well, because of the anguish that you had caused him

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