Question:
- Can I mochel somebody if they borrowed money and didn’t pay it back?
- Ribit and debts are not good to have but what if you don’t remember if you were involved in any?
- Also if it was done unintentionally is it a problem. lets say someone was a child and traded something with ribit? how is he to go about that. Thank you
Answer:
- You definitely can be mochel the people that borrowed money from you and didn’t pay it back. That is a very pious thing to do, to be mochel others. In fact, being mochel the wrongs that were done to us is a great merit for the person, and it causes that H-shem should say, “he was mochel what was done wrong to him, even though he didn’t have to. So too I will be mochel him for the aveiros that he did even though I don’t have to’. Therefore being mochel other is a great merit for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Being that this is such an important idea, we make a declaration every evening at the beginning of kriyas shema al hamita, that we are mochel everyone for whatever they may have sinned to us, and we also say it is “tefilas zaka”- the tefiloh that we say right before Kol Nidrei on Yom Kippur
- We have to try the best we can, to remember any money that we owe, however what we don’t remember we ask H-shem to help us, i.e by causing that the person should be mochel it, or causing that we end up paying that person back etc. That is the best that we can do, and H-shem does not want us to do more than what we possibly can do.
- Money that is owed even if it is unintentionally is still owed, although it is not as severe since it is unintentional. A person that took forbidden interest will only have to pay it back under certain conditions, ( if the ribbis was biblically forbidden, but not if it was only m’drabonon), however even so, for what was done as a child the obligation is much less. Please see the following link https://dinonline.org/2018/08/27/if-i-stole-and-borrowed-and-didnt-pay-back-under-thirteen-am-i-still-liable/
Best wishes