The Torah commands that when you take a garment as a pledge for a loan, you must return it to the borrower so they can sleep in it at night. But the Mekhilta noticed a problem: the verse in Exodus only mentions a daytime garment. What about a night garment? If someone pledges a cloak they need for sleeping, must it also be returned?
The answer comes from a parallel verse in Deuteronomy: "Return shall you return the pledge to him when the sun goes down" (Deuteronomy 24:13). The rabbis read the two verses together. The Exodus law covers day garments, which must be returned each morning. The Deuteronomy law covers night garments, which must be returned each evening. Together, they create a complete system: a creditor may hold a day garment at night and a night garment during the day, but must always return each garment when the borrower actually needs it.
This legal reasoning reveals something extraordinary about the Torah's approach to poverty. The Mekhilta understood that a pledge is not merely a financial instrument. It is a piece of someone's dignity. A person who has been reduced to offering their clothing as collateral is already vulnerable. The Torah refuses to let creditors exploit that vulnerability by keeping the garment when the borrower would suffer without it. Even in a commercial transaction, the Torah demands that human beings treat each other with compassion. The pledge must circulate, morning and evening, like a daily reminder that debt does not erase personhood.