“You shall not be as a creditor to him.” If you lent to him, do not pressure him. If he has a field or a vineyard, do not say to him: ‘Take a maneh,8One hundred zuz. invest it in business, and write a writ designating your field or your vineyard to guarantee repayment to me.’ The next day, he will lose his business investment and you will repossess his field or his vineyard.
Therefore, it is written: “You shall not be as a creditor to him.” From here you learn that anyone who takes interest is not God-fearing.9This is based upon the verse: “Do not take interest or increase; you shall fear your God” (Leviticus 25:36). Some amend the text of the midrash such that it cites the verse from Leviticus (see Rabbi David Luria). Likewise, Ezekiel says: “He gave with usury and took interest, shall he live?
He shall not live” (Ezekiel 18:13). This is analogous to one who had his indictment read before the judge. The judge said: ‘Is he still alive?’10He deserves to have been killed for his previous crimes. So too the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Shall he live?
He shall not live, he took usury and interest.’ Another matter, the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘One who subsisted from interest in this world will not live in the World to Come. He bore a son and he did not take interest.’11This is based on Ezekiel 18:14–17. After describing a man who takes interest, among other sins, and will die due to his transgressions, the prophet describes this sinner as having a son who does not commit the transgressions of his father, and as a result will not die.
They said to Him:12The angels said to God. ‘His father would take usury.’ He said to them: ‘Why do I care? I wrote: “A son will not bear the iniquity of the father, the soul that sins, it will die”’ (Ezekiel 18:20). The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘You say that the son should die.
Even the father, had he sought to repent and to reclaim his life, I would accept him, as it is stated: “But the wicked person, if he repents…[he shall surely live, he shall not die]” (Ezekiel 18:21); if he repents wholeheartedly, I accept him.’ That is why it is stated: “You shall not be as a creditor to him.”13This refers back to the statements above regarding the severity of this transgression. “You shall not impose [lo tesimun] usury upon him” (Exodus 22:24).
It should have said only “you shall not impose [lo tasim].”14In the singular. What is “you shall not impose [lo tesimun]”?15Why is it stated in the plural? These are the witnesses, the guarantor, the judges, and the scribe, as were it not for them, he would not take anything; therefore, they are all punished. From where is it derived that the borrower is punished?
It is, as it is stated: “You shall not lend with interest [tashikh] to your brother” (Deuteronomy 23:20).16The term tashikh can also be translated such that the verse would mean: You shall not facilitate your brother taking interest. To what is interest comparable? To one whom a serpent bit, but he did not sense what had bitten him, and he did not discover it until [the venom] proliferated in him. So too, with interest, a person does not sense it until it proliferates upon him.