Q&A: Theft
Theft
Question
A question of Jewish law: Is it permitted to use an object belonging to my friend without asking his permission (for reason x or y) if I know he would agree? Is there no theft involved?
A conceptual/Talmudic implication: if it is permitted, can one say that in the case of saving oneself with another person’s property, it is permitted for him to take it even according to Rashi, because he knows that if he asked the owner of the object, he would certainly agree?
(And according to this, the only case in which, according to Rashi, there is actually a prohibition in saving oneself with another person’s property is when he does not know whether his friend would agree, and all the more so if he knows that he would not agree.)
Answer
It is certainly permitted if the friend agrees. For example, with an object used for a commandment, there is a presumption that the owner agrees, and therefore it is permitted to use it without his permission (“it is pleasing to a person that a commandment be performed with his property”). And indeed, in saving oneself as well, that is the law. If the friend objects, that is the issue under discussion. Alternatively, if according to Rashi one does not need to pay the friend for the use (that itself is open to discussion), then perhaps he objects to my using it without paying.