לואַל־תִּקַּ֤ח מֵֽאִתּוֹ֙ נֶ֣שֶׁךְ וְתַרְבִּ֔ית וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וְחֵ֥י אָחִ֖יךָ עִמָּֽךְ:
36. You shall not take from him interest or increase, and you shall fear your God, and let your brother live with you.
What does it mean when it says “and you shall fear your G-d”?
Rashi says that naturally, a person would be inclined to taking interest from his fellow Jew, so it specifically adds in that we should fear Hashem, as a deterrent against sneakily taking interest, because we should acknowledge that Hashem knows all our inner thoughts.
What are other explanations of “and you shall fear your G-d”?
Where else in the Torah does it discuss interest?
Where else in this Parsha, or in Tanach in general, do we see sources for different Mitzvot?
What are other possible reasons we are not allowed to charge interest on others?
In יחזקאל פרק י״ח פסוקים י״ג + י״ח, it says that charging interest is among the worst sins a man can do. The punishment is death. This is mentioned by the sins of fathers that sons will not be punished for.
ReplyDeleteJessie:
ReplyDeleteAccording to sforno, you can’t charge interest on others because you don’t want to embarrass the other person. God made you good financially so you can give loans. I like this answer because it is very straightforward and makes sense.
Rivka Yellin
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rabbi Satlow, a reason that we don’t charge interest on one another is because a loan is considered a mitzva and we should never ask for payment on a mitzva. He says that the loans are the highest form of the mitzva of tzedakah and to charge for it would be adding anxiety to the person on what they must do which would indeed take away from the mitzva. I like this answer because it shows that mitzvot are not about what is best for us but what we can do for other people. It is also interesting because the opposite of the stereotype of Jews and being money hogs is being expressed in this commandment.