The pasuk [Tehillim 37-21] says "לוה רשע ולא ישלם". A person who borrows and doesn't repay the loan is a RASHA!!
What is the רשעות?
1] Well, if one puts one's hand in someone else's pocket and takes out money - that is evil. Not returning a loan is essentially doing the same thing in a more sophisticated way. He takes money with the giver's full consent and then doesn't give it back - which equals in the end result an act of pick pocketing [al pi halahca - better his nose than his pocket...]. There are many people who would never pickpocket but don't return loans. It is really the same thing. People just don't view it that way so they can rationalize it. [Dan Ariely points to similar phenomena in his books. We are מורה היתר in ways that are more subtle but don't seem outright criminal - even though they are].
2] Reuven needed a favor from Shimon. Shimon did the favor, taking a loss as a result. Money makes money and loaning money doesn't make money [we don't allow interest]. Now Shimon needs the EXACT SAME FAVOR from Reuven. He wants his money back. Reuven is deaf to his pleas. That is כפיות טובה - terrible ingratitude and THAT middah is evil.
So any time someone does me a favor and then when he needs me I ignore him, I am acting like a Rasha.
SCARY!
[It is also a subtle form of denying Hashem ח"ו. Stealing expresses that a person believes that Hashem can't or won't help him so he will take things into his own hands - literally].
[It is also a subtle form of denying Hashem ח"ו. Stealing expresses that a person believes that Hashem can't or won't help him so he will take things into his own hands - literally].
Says the Gemara [Bava Basra 5a]:
If a person claims to have returned a loan early [without proof] he is not believed!! And, the Gemara adds "WE WISH that he would return the loan on time". The Gemara explains that there is a חזקה - a presumption, that people don't pay before they have to.
.חזקה לא עביד איניש דפרע בגו זימניה
A busy Dayan said that in all the years he has been dealing with monetary cases he has NEVER witnessed a case where a person returned the money early [against the presumption of the Gemara]. I know someone with a Gemach. He also says that not only do people never return money early, but they never return it on time and sometimes don't return it at all.
This is understood. People love money. Money gives them security. Money is limitless potential. Think of all the things you can buy with money. [But think of all the things that money DOESN'T buy...]. Money is called כסף which also means yearning - נכסוף נכספתי. It also means embarassment - see for example Avoda Zara 22a. The way people act regarding money causes them בושה.
Many years ago Rav Yaakov Darmoni Shlita said a line I have never forgotten. I was complaining [I think] about someone who was less than honest in a monetary matter. I said that it can't be because he has Yiras Shomayim. Rav Darmoni said "בכסף אין יראת שמים". When it comes to money, you can't trust anyone no matter how frum he is.
That is why one MUST have witnesses to a loan and also should write a loan document and not rely on an oral promise [Bava Metzia 75b]. Halacha trusts nobody.
Yichud between a man and a woman is also forbidden, regardless of how frum they are. Even the gadol hador and a one hundred and five year old alta-alta-alta bubbe [without teeth] are not allowed to be secluded together. אין אפוטרופוס לעריות. We trust nobody. As Chazal say [דרך ארץ רבה פ"ה] - RESPECT everyone as if he or she is the holy Rabban Gamliel. And be suspicious of them as if they were an armed bandit:
לעולם יהיו כל בני אדם חשובין לפניך כלסטים והוי מכבדן כרבן גמליאל, ומעשה ברבי יהושע שהשכים אצלו אדם ונתן לו אכילה ושתיה והעלהו לגג לשכב, ונטל סולם מתחתיו, מה עשה אותו האיש, עמד בחצי הלילה ונטל את הכלים וכרכן בטליתו – וכיון שביקש לירד נפל מן הגג ונשברה מפרקתו, לשחרית השכים רבי יהושע ובא מצאו כשהוא נופל, אמר לו ריקה כך עושין בני אדם שכמותך, אמר לו רבי, לא הייתי יודע שנטלת את הסולם מתחתי, אמר לו ריקה אי אתה יודע שמאמש היינו זהירין בך. מכאן א”ר יהושע לעולם יהיו כל בני אדם בעיניך כלסטים והוי מכבדן כר”ג.
Elsewhere [Bava Basra 165] our BRILLIANT and PRACTICAL Sages tell us that MOST PEOPLE are guilty of some type of stealing and a smaller percentage of עריות [!!!]. Lashon Hara in a more subtle form - everyone!
In the same Gemara it says that not a day goes by [!!!] without illicit sexual thoughts. The Gemara is not referring to the millions upon millions [upon millions...] who watch hard core pornography. It is referring [even] to ehrliche Yidden...
NOIRA NOIRAOS!!!
In order to fix the beast within us we need to know that he is in there....
MUCH LOVE SWEETEST FRIENDS!!!
