If You Lend Money to My People and the Ban on Interest

"If you lend money" (Exodus 22:24): one might think this is optional; Scripture teaches, "you shall surely lend him" (Deuteronomy 15:8) — it is an obligation, not optional. In the name of Rabbi Yishmael they said: every "if" in the Torah is optional except for three that are obligatory, and this is one of them. "Money": I have only money. From where do I include a beast, produce, and vessels? Scripture teaches, "lend." I have only a loan. From where do I include [obligations such as] damages, half-damages, the double payment, and the fourfold and fivefold payments? Scripture teaches, "if money." If so, why is it stated, "lend"? From here you say: one may add to the rental price but may not add to the sale price. How so? If one rents out his house or his field and says, "if you pay me now, one maneh; if later, one hundred and fifty," it is permitted and not [forbidden as] interest. But if one sells his house or his field and says, "if you pay me now, one maneh; if later, one hundred and fifty," it is forbidden as interest. As it says, "if you lend money to My people, to the poor among you": just as a loan is distinctive in that you do not take back from him more than what you give him, so this excludes [the sale, where] what you give him you do take back from him [with the price already fixed]. "The poor among you": I have only the poor. From where [do I include] the rich? Scripture teaches, "among you." From where [do I include] a woman? Scripture teaches, "My people." If so, why is it stated, "the poor"? [Because the Holy One, blessed be He, says:] I am quick to exact punishment on account of the poor more than on account of the rich. "You shall not be to him as a creditor" (Exodus 22:24): if you have lent him, do not press him; do not provoke him over his field or over his donkey. "You shall not be to him as a creditor": he should not press him or demand from him when he knows the man has nothing. "You shall not be to him as a creditor": if the lender was not accustomed to greet him, let him not [suddenly] greet him; if he was not accustomed to send him a gift, let him not send him a gift. "You shall not lay upon him interest": what is interest [neshekh]? This is one who takes a se'ah and returns it diminished, and a sela diminished from it. And interest [neshekh] is biting interest. Harsh is interest, for whoever lends at interest has no portion in the world to come, as it is written, "he has given on interest and taken increase; shall he then live? He shall not live" (Ezekiel 18:13). "And he shall live" — he lives in this world; "he shall not live" — [he shall not live] for the life of the world to come. The whole matter is spoken in the singular: "if you lend money," "you shall not be to him as a creditor"; here [it shifts] to the plural: "you shall not lay upon him interest." This teaches that many are bound up in a single loan. From here you say: the lender, the borrower, the guarantor, and the witnesses — all of them are liable.