Friday, March 22, 2024

Overcharging is prohibited only to Jews

 Maharal Baer HaGolah 07) And also what was said in the tractate of Baba Metziya, that overcharging a non Jew is permissible, as in the text "And no man shall give to his fellow," because this means that when a person sells something to his friend and it is found that he gave it to his friend in exchange for something that must be returned to him, even if the seller himself did not know at the time of the sale, this is an extreme position which is not found in the law of the nations, and the Torah is stricter, and but only if he is his fellow in the Torah and mitzvos 

1 comment:

  1. There's a story about a shiur at YU on medical ethics and the Rav, zt"l, was in attendance. The speaker was explaining how, technically, we desecrate Shabbos for Jews but pikuach nefesh doesn't apply to Gentiles so we don't do that for them. However, practically speaking, we treat Gentiles the same as Jews on Shabbos.
    The Rav is said to have interrupted and pointed out that indeed, we do desecrate Shabbos for Gentiles but while for Jews the kavanah is piku'ach nefesh, for Gentiles it's mipnei eivah and to avoid chilul HaShem.
    So perhaps it is legally permitted to overcharge a non-Jew but one would think that mipnei eivah and to avoid chilul HaShem, it's practically forbidden.

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