By Rabbi Susan Stone
You know, morality is an interesting thing. In theory, we are all in favor of it. We like to be treated well and we like to treat others well. We are against cheating, stealing and lying. We are for helping the unfortunate and making society a fairer place.
That’s the easy part.
The hard part comes when we come to the “how do we do this”? It’s there, to borrow a Talmudic image, when we begin to worry about whose ox is getting gored. When we come to the implications of our good impulses, our pious statements are put to the test and begin to pinch.
For the purists among us, only absolute justice will do. For the practically oriented, something more realizable and workable is needed after the great sounding statements. It is that middle ground in which the real work of morality gets done.
Torah often sounds a bit too pure for the practically minded. High ideals are set out and we can agree on the rightness of their goals, but reaching them is not an easy path. In this week’s portion, the ideal of economic social justice is presented to us.
Verse 24 of Exodus’ twenty-second chapter reads “When you lend money to My people, to the poor person who is with you, do not act toward him as a creditor; do not lay interest upon him.” As one commentator notes, “A loan is one of the highest forms of charity, because it preserves the self-respect of the borrower and allows him to rebuild his own independent financial ability.”
Now, we can all sit here and agree that this is a great idea. Just imagine if poor people were given access to capital without the burden of interest. When they ran short between paychecks, they wouldn’t have to worry about paying the corner check cashing store 20% off the top. When they wanted to open a business, they wouldn’t have to put 100% aside in order to only be charged 12% by the bank! Wouldn’t it be grand?
Yes, it would!
But would it be practical?
And there’s the rub. You see, lending without interest is totally impractical in our society. Money is a tool of growth and expansion. We all benefit when money is loaned at interest. When repaid, it fuels more growth and gives more incentive for yet newer projects and more growth and so on and so on.
Because of this reality, this law in Torah is one that is most often observed in the breach – it is either ignored or circumvented or just outright transgressed.
And that is a shame. It is a shame because people who do not observe this wonderful practice miss the whole point. You see, the prohibition against lending on interest isn’t about money at all. The prohibition against lending on interest is about justice.
Repeatedly, we are adjured to remember the poor in our midst. By so doing, Torah is teaching us that economic justice must be part and parcel of any society. This is the kind of justice that is not achieved in a law suit or a court verdict. This is the kind of justice that comes from people living together and actively caring about others. Laws against loaning money on interest remind us that we cannot live life to its maximum effect if all members of a community are not availed the opportunity to access that one tool of growth that fuels so many others: money.
Here’s how our ancient rabbis solved the dilemma between morality and practicality: Free Loan societies. The rabbis understood economics and so tightly regulated the loan of money both to Jews and non-Jews. Through a device in Jewish law known as a hetter, a permission, they were able to allow interest in various guises when there was no other way. But the rabbis also made sure that the letter of the law, particularly as it applied to needy Jews, was always followed. Their guiding principle was the achievement of justice. Free Loan Societies have long loaned money to those in need.
We have a Hebrew Free Loan Association in Cleveland. It works as follows: up to $5000 is loaned to needy and responsible people. They require proof of ability to repay as well as credit-worthy co-signers. Clients begin repayment a month after the loan is granted and have up to two years to repay the loan. The fact of the revolving loan fund is what keeps money coming in and obviates the need to charge interest.
But more interesting than how it works is why it works. Any such organization lives on contributions. Why are people motivated to make donations to such organizations? The answer is donors understand that it is not about money, but about justice. Having an organization that works to put capital into the hands of people who have no other access to it as about justice. Having an organization that does the hard work of finding the right clients and pooling resources and then collecting the repayments allows the whole community to do what is right and to thus benefit.
Repeatedly, I have made the point that this law in Torah is about more than money. It is about justice. This point is made most clear when we read the verses about giving interest free loans from within their original setting: the twenty-second chapter of Exodus.
You shall not taunt or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not cause pain to any widow or orphan. If you dare to cause such pain…! – for if such a one shall cry out to Me, I shall surely hear the outcry. My wrath shall blaze and I shall kill you by the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans.
When you lend money to My people, to the poor who is with you, do not act toward him as a creditor, do lay interest upon him. If you take your fellow’s garment as security, until sunset shall you return it to him. For it alone is his clothing, it is his ferment for his skin – in what should he lie down? – so it will be that if he cries out to Me, I shall listen, for I am compassionate.
You shall not revile God, and you shall not curse a leader among your people.
Do not delay your fullness-offering or your priestly heave-offering; the firstborn of your sons shall you present to Me. So shall you do… (vv. 20-29)
First, we are taught to maintain our sensitivity to those who are helpless and abandoned, then the topic turns to money and finally, to offerings we make to God. Within these ten verses, Torah gives us the heart of Jewish ethics: take care of each other, and then turn to God with worship, praise and offerings. It must work in that order and that order only. When we accomplish these lofty goals, we get to be the “People of holiness” referred to in the very next verse. Ken Yihe Ratzon. May it be so. Amen.
