In just a short time, we’ll welcome Yom Kippur, the day of teshuvah. Chazal established a standard viduy – confession – in which they mentioned various transgressions. Among them is the transgression of ribbis — Al cheit she’chatanu lefanacha b’neshech u’b’marbis.

How does one do teshuvah on ribbis? As with other aveiros, one needs to have charatah (regret), say viduy, and make a sincere commitment to avoid ribbis in the future. This can be accomplished by learning the relevant halachos and heightening one’s awareness to be vigilant not to borrow inadvertently or lend with ribbis.

However, teshuvah for ribbis requires another element as well. If one has accepted ribbis funds, he must return them to the owner. This is derived from the pasuk that forbids lending with ribbis and then continues: וחי אחיך עמך (Vayikra 25:36). Guarantee your brother’s survival — i.e., return his money for future use.

If someone lent 99 shekels and said “pay me back 100,” the extra money is ribbis min haTorah and one is required to return the money. Additionally, one who lent a bottle of oil that wasn’t full and told the borrower to return a full bottle, must return the extra oil to the borrower. A bank loan or similar loan that was done without a proper heter iska is also in this category.

This point is unique to ribbis. Although the money was given by the borrower on his own volition – and he’s happy to pay – the money does not rightfully belong to the lender and must be returned.

This obligation is limited to ribbis min haTorah, which is only when the ribbis was stipulated from the onset of the loan. However, other, more common occurrences, are not assur min haTorah. For example, someone borrowed a bottle of oil that was not full and returned a full bottle on his own accord or someone borrowed money and returned it along with a bottle of wine. Another common case is the borrower who sends his lender a large mishloach manos. All of these scenarios involve ribbis m’drabanon, and therefore the chiyuv min hatorah of returning what was given does not apply.

Notwithstanding the above, more often than not, even ribbis m’drabanon must still be returned due to other halachic considerations, which we’ll discuss next week.