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Paying Tuition with Maaser Money

A women attended baal tshuva seminary for a few summers and could not pay tuition. She agreed (she used the word “promised”) that when she would start working she would start paying off her tuition. She asks if she can use maaser money.
On the one hand you can’t use maaser money to pay off personal debts, but I’m not sure if this is an actual debt. I don’t think the seminary is mehcayev them to pay, it seems more like an understanding that she will help in the future, on the other hand this is just hearsay.
Can this be seen as a dvar mitzva? This women is sephardic, my understanding is that sephardim don’t see it as an obligation but a minhag tov. So does this fulfill the minhag tov?

Thank you.

Answer:

In principle she is obligated to pay the money as a monetary debt – she said that when she will start working she’ll pay off the tuition, and the wording doesn’t matter (by attending the seminary she becomes obligated to pay the tuition).

Therefore, this is a debt, and one can’t in principle use maaser money to pay it off.

If, however, she doesn’t have enough money to pay both maaser and to pay the tuition, then she should pay the tuition – which is a full obligation – and not maaser.

If she thought in advance that she will use maaser money for payment of the tuition, there is room for leniency in using maaser money (please see our articles on the obligation of maaser for more details).

Best wishes.

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