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When you damage someone's property or injure them, paying restitution covers only the financial loss—but what about the anxiety, suffering, and violation the person experienced? The Rambam (רמב"ם) requires both asking the victim for forgiveness (ritzui) and confessing to Hashem (ה׳) (vidui). This shiur shows that bein adam l'chaveiro is ultimately bein adam l'Makom: even when the victim forgives, Hashem still requires an apology for how His child was treated.
Rabbi Zweig opens with a Kessef Mishna on the Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva (תשובה)) that puzzles him: the Rambam (רמב"ם) says that if you damage someone's property—or injure them (chovel bechaveiro)—you must confess (be misvadeh) to Hashem (ה׳), even after paying restitution. The Kessef Mishna derives this from a Mishna in Bava Kamma (Perek Beis) that states: "Even after you give him the money, eino nimchal ad sheyevakesh mimenu mechilah—you are not forgiven until you ask the person for forgiveness." But what does that Mishna about asking the victim for mechilah have to do with the Rambam's requirement to confess to Hashem? Rabbi Zweig proposes a fundamental yesod: financial restitution addresses only the asset loss, not the full scope of the harm. When you burn someone's field, rob their money, or injure their body, you also cause anxiety, emotional suffering, sleepless nights worrying about parnassah, and a profound violation of the person's dignity. Returning the money or paying damages fixes the financial ledger but does nothing to heal the emotional and spiritual turmoil the victim endured in the interim. The din of ritzui—asking the person for forgiveness—addresses that broader violation of the person, not merely the monetary injury. The Mishna is teaching that even full monetary tashlumin does not erase the sin; there is a separate obligation to seek mechilah for the totality of the harm.
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Hilchos Teshuva (Rambam), Bava Kamma Perek Beis
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