Q&A: Repentance for Theft
Repentance for Theft
Question
In honor of the great Rabbi, expert in many fields, Siftei Kohen, Rabbi Michael Abraham, may he live long and well,
I wanted to ask a very personal question. I am not a penitent in the dramatic sense; I am constantly doing repentance. I was born into a very closed Haredi family, and I stole a lot—whether in the junior yeshiva, the senior yeshiva, and from other yeshivas, bookstores, and anywhere else I could.
And today I regret it deeply—not because I got caught, but because I understand that this is something terrible. In any case, I do not know what to do, whether to return the money, etc. In the Talmud in tractate Shabbat 88 it is explained that the heavenly court does not punish before the age of 20. So the question is whether because of that I can start a new and clean page without this knowledge weighing on me, since most, if not all, of the thefts were at an earlier age. It is important to note that today I have weaned myself off this, and I have not laid a hand on anything for about a year—not even a penny that was not mine, knowingly.
At the same time, I am worried that I will not be able to do complete repentance, because if my basic assumption is incorrect regarding the rule of punishment from age 20, in any case I do not know where I will get money from. Am I considered wicked? In matchmaking, do I need to tell people about this? Will this prosecute me all my life? Will I come back in reincarnation? Can kabbalist rabbis see on my forehead that I have many thefts in my early years, etc.?
What should I do? I am really at a loss.
Thank you very much,
and my sincere apologies for the lack of order.
Answer
Hello,
Leave the kabbalists and the forehead alone. That is nonsense.
You definitely need to repent and also return the money. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of punishment before age 20, which itself, in my opinion, has no real basis. The obligation to return the money is not connected to the question of whether you will be punished or not. If you have money that is not yours, you must return it.
If you do not remember from whom you stole, you should give the money back for public needs.
If you do not have money, then of course there is not much I can say. You need to work hard and earn as much money as possible in order to return it. It goes without saying that you have absolutely no right to remain a kollel fellow in such a situation.