The yamim noraim were reaching their climax. The shul was packed with men wrapped in taleisim and women dressed in white for Ne’ilah. The rabbi delivered an impassioned sermon emphasizing the tremendous last-minute opportunity for teshuvah – repentance – and exhorted each person to self-examine his ways.
Mr. Krumbein listened intently and the words penetrated his heart deeply. He was a simple person who earned his living as a shopkeeper, but he tried to observe the mitzvot properly, deal kindly with others, and learn according to his available time. Of course, there were many things to do teshuvah about, but none of these would “make or break” his Yom Kippur. He searched for something that perhaps he had overlooked in previous years or that would set his life along a significantly more proper way.
Toward the end of his Shemoneh Esrei, he found himself saying viduy: “Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu… – We were guilty, we betrayed, we stole…”
Mr. Krumbein was perplexed. He wasn’t a thief. He hadn’t stolen. Or had he? There were times he had cut corners slightly with his customers; some times he hadn’t gotten around to paying the delivery boy; some extra stock on consignment was never returned to the suppliers. But what could he do about this? Who remembers whom he had cheated and by how much?
Suddenly the viduy took on new meaning. If he was going to repent for gezel he had only a few minutes left to go through the teshuvah process: He regretted his actions; he confessed; he accepted not to do ever again. But how could he ever fix what he had done, moreover on Yom Kippur itself?
After finishing Shemoneh Esrei, he noticed a dvar Torah by Rabbi Dayan in the weekly parshah sheet titled “So That We Should Refrain from Stealing.” While he generally avoided reading parshah sheets during davening, this was essential for Yom Kippur. He grabbed the parshah sheet and was amazed to see the article addressed his question: How does one repent from stealing?
The article first cited the words of the Shulchan Aruch (C.M. 360): “Anyone who steals is required to return the theft itself, as it says, ‘He should return the theft that he stole.’ If it is lost or changed, he pays its value.”
But what about the many people he no longer remembered?
This was addressed by the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (182:7): “One who steals from many –such as a storeowner who measured with a deficient measure, or weighed with a deficient measure … or one who took interest from many – his repentance is difficult. Therefore, he should do public needs, so that those who were stolen from should also benefit. Nonetheless, he is required to return to those that he knows he stole from, and does not fulfill his obligation by doing public needs.”
Mr. Krumbein began to see a glimmer of hope for proper repentance from gezel. But what to do now, as the clock ticked on, and the gates of Yom Kippur were about to close?
He continued reading. In the final paragraph Rabbi Dayan related a story about the Chofetz Chaim, who gathered his students before Ne’ilah and spoke to them about the severity of stealing. The Chofetz Chaim concluded that although it was now Yom Kippur, and it was not feasible to return the theft that day, each person should accept upon himself now to return the money after Yom Kippur. This acceptance to repay would be viewed as though the person had already done so.
Mr. Krumbein firmly accepted upon himself to return to those he knew he had cheated and also to donate to the local shul and community center.
When he said “Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu…” for the final time in Chazaras Hashatz, Mr. Krumbein was able to recite the viduy with a clearer heart.