Sermon: Can You Spare a Loan?
By Wendy Amsellem. Reprinted with permission from the Jewish Feminist Orthodox Alliance.
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Having just gone through a season of giving, I suppose it may be impolitic to point out that the Torah never commands us to give money to the poor. Instead, there are numerous adjurations to lend money to those in need. The assumption throughout is that the money will be repaid. Other laws delineate gifts given to the poor, but they are always gifts of produce–not money. Over time, as the Jewish economy became less agriculturally based, we can trace a rabbinic effort to re-interpret laws of loans into obligations of gifts. This reinterpretation becomes the basis for the laws of tzedaka as we know them today.
The first biblical laws outlining our obligations to the poor appear in Exodus 22:24-26:
If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not behave towards him as a creditor, do not charge him interest. If you take his garment as collateral, return it to
him as the sun sets. For it is his only garment, his only covering for his skin–in what will he sleep? If he cries out to Me, I will hear him for I am merciful.
These verses assume that a loan is taking place, not a gift, and the verses stipulate the terms of the loan–namely that it be without interest. Moreover, there is an assumption that collateral is being taken, which is a clear indication that there is an expectation of repayment. The Torah mandates that the poor be treated mercifully and that, if the collateral is needed by its owner, it must be returned as the need demands.
Leviticus 25:35-37 develops this theme further:
If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters you shall strengthen him–stranger and settler–and he shall live with you. You shall not take interest from him; your brother shall live with you. Neither money nor food shall you give him with interest.
The emphasis is once again on lending without interest. We are to enable the brother to live with us, seemingly by extending loans that will allow him to cover his needs.
Deuteronomy 24:10-15 similarly stipulates that the poor person who has borrowed money be treated with respect. The lender may not barge into the poor person’s home to collect the collateral. Instead the lender is to wait politely outside for the poor person to bring out the object. Again, there is the presumption that a loan has taken place and that the lender can enforce repayment. The Torah is just trying to safeguard the poor person’s dignity during the process.
There is one biblical passage that suggests that the lender may not necessarily be repaid:
If there be a poor person from one of your brothers in one of your gates in the land that God has given you, you shall not harden your heart or clench your hand from your brother who is poor. You shall open your hand to him and lend him all that he lacks. Beware lest there be in your heart an unscrupulous thought [namely] that the seventh year, the sabbatical year is coming, and you think to be stingy towards your brother who is poor and not give him...Surely you shall give him and let your heart not be troubled when you give him since because of this, God will bless you in all your endeavors (Deuteronomy 15:7-10).
During the Sabbatical year all debts are canceled. In this passage, the Torah addresses the lender’s very reasonable reluctance to lend money to the poor as the sabbatical year draws near. In all likelihood, the debt will be canceled before it is repaid. The Torah demands that the loans be given anyway and promises God’s blessings as an alternative to repayment. It is significant that the money is never given as a gift; it is always termed a loan, albeit one that may never be collected.
There are, of course, many gifts that the Torah establishes for the poor. The corners of the field, produce that is forgotten in the field, sheaves that fall during harvesting–all of these are to be left for the poor. A tenth of one’s produce is to be given to the Levite, who is often assumed to be poor. However, it is not clear if these gifts are binding outside the land of Israel, and they certainly only seem to be relevant for an agricultural population.
As the Jewish community moved into exile and away from an agrarian lifestyle, these types of land-based charitable gifts were no longer sufficient. As a result, the rabbis reinterpreted the biblical verses to refer to charity as we know it today. The Babylonian Talmud in Ketubot 67b explains that when Deuteronomy 15:7 speaks of lending, it is referring to a poor person who refuses to accept a gift of money. The Torah says to give it as a loan, so that it will be accepted, but then afterward to claim that it was a gift. According to the Talmud, the goal is for the money to be accepted as a gift, and the giver merely uses the pretense of a loan to ensure that the gift is accepted.
Maimonides goes further in his re-interpretation of these verses. In his Laws of Gifts to the Poor, 7:1 he states as follows:
It is a positive commandment to give tzedaka to the poor of Israel according to the needs of the poor, as far as the giver can afford, as it says, “You shall open your hand to him” (Deuteronomy 15:8), and it says “you shall strengthen him–stranger and settler–and he shall live with you” (Leviticus 25:35), and it says “your brother shall live with you” (Leviticus 25:36). And anyone who sees a poor person asking and shuts his eyes from him and does not give him tzedaka, violates a negative commandment, as it says “you shall not harden your heart or clench your hand from your brother who is poor” (Deuteronomy 15:6).
Maimonides claims that there is a positive commandment to give tzedaka. Significantly all the verses that he cites to support this idea are not about giving, but rather about lending. Maimonides cites the verses from Deuteronomy and Leviticus out of context in order to create a biblical obligation to give to the poor.
Maimonides then continues to explain in the next section:
According to what the poor person lacks, so you are commanded to give him. If he does not have clothing, you clothe him; if he does not have household implements, you buy them for him; if he does not a wife, you marry him to a woman; if the poor person is a woman, you marry her to a man; even if this poor person was accustomed to ride on a horse with a servant running before him, and now he has lost his fortune, you buy him a horse to ride and a servant to run before him as it says “all that he lacks” (Deut. 15:8), you are commanded to fulfill his what he is lacking, but you are not commanded to enrich him (Laws of Gifts to the Poor 7:2).
In this second section, Maimonides describes one’s obligations to the poor. Again, Maimonides quotes a prooftext from a biblical verse speaking of a loan; however, it does not seem that he is speaking of lending the clothing, the household utensils, the servant, or the horse. Instead Maimonides is once again using the verses about lending to create an obligation to give. Later in Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:7, Maimonides designates a loan or a job offer as the highest form of charity, but he does not indicate that it is the only form mandated by the Bible.
It is not hard to understand the rabbinic attempt to create a biblical mandate to give charity. There was a basis in the Torah for agricultural charity, and after the Jewish community moved into exile, that framework was no longer sufficient.. In its place, the Rabbis created an obligation to give money or whatever goods are needed by others. Why though does the Torah devote so many verses to creating an ethical lending framework, instead of simply insisting that we give
to those less fortunate?
One possible answer is that the Torah is not just concerned with fulfilling the day-to-day needs of the poor. Those needs could theoretically be covered through agricultural gifts. Instead, the Torah is seeking to eradicate poverty. The Torah is in effect instituting a system of micro-lending. Poor people are given the capital to lift themselves out of poverty. The
expectation that they will repay the loans is also an expression of confidence that they will be able to afford to do so. For generations, Jewish communities have created free-loan societies as an embodiment of these ideals. The awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus for creating a system of micro-lending in rural Bangladesh is evidence of the contemporary currency of this biblical idea.
As we think about how best to alleviate privation in the world, may we be inspired by the Torah to seek ways to uproot the causes of poverty and to help people to empower themselves. May we always remember to guard the dignity of the recipients of our aid, and may we give with a free heart and an open hand so that we may share in the blessing of Deuteronomy 15:10:
Because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your endeavors.
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Wendy Amsellem is a faculty member at Drisha Institute and serves as director of its high-school programs. She is pursuing a PhD in Jewish Studies at New York University.
