Q&A: Non-Kosher, Kosher, and Theft
Non-Kosher, Kosher, and Theft
Question
I heard about a restaurant that, among other things, used to sell non-kosher food, and some teenagers would order a sausage there and some of them would also steal. Later on, the restaurant owner stopped selling non-kosher food and sold only kosher food, though not with an official certificate, because he wanted to avoid the strict demands of the Rabbinate—maybe so he could still operate on the Sabbath, I don’t know whether he koshered the utensils. After some time, one of the boys, who had become religiously observant, came to him and asked forgiveness. It’s possible he also paid him back. Should he have paid him back? Did he need his forgiveness? And in a case where the business owner is a religious person who customarily says at least once in his life, “I hereby forgive and pardon,” as appears in prayer books of all traditions before the bedtime Shema—can that be relied upon?
Answer
If he sells non-kosher food, is it permitted to steal from him? Forgiveness is requested from the person who was harmed, not mumbled like a prayer from a prayer book.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t understand these casuistic hairsplittings. They stole, so they should pay. What he does with the money is solely his business. The offender has to ask forgiveness.
Saying the formula does not necessarily indicate intention, certainly not toward someone you don’t know harmed you. Besides, this is part of your own process of repentance.
Okay, I understand your view, and maybe I’m even convinced. As for intention when reciting a prayer formula, I don’t know if that really belongs here. Rabbi Chaim HaLevi, on Maimonides, writes that intention in prayer has two legal components: 1) the intention itself; 2) that one stands before the King. So maybe here too, when a person recites a prayer formula, that is his starting point—that he stands before the King—and that itself is also intention. Maybe your point can also be strengthened by what is written: “and he shall restore the theft that he stole.”
I didn’t understand the connection to intentions in prayer and to Rabbi Chaim’s remarks (which need no elaboration—they are self-evident. His innovation is that this resolves Maimonides. I’m skeptical about that).
Let’s say they returned it to him / asked forgiveness while he was still selling non-kosher food—but what if by returning the money they were becoming partners in the transgression [because he would use it to buy more non-kosher food]? And secondly, I’m asking about a case like this where the restaurant owner says, “I hereby forgive and pardon anyone who…” or “who sinned against me, whether… whether regarding my money or anything else of mine.” That’s a general formula of forgiveness for everyone.