"If you lend money to My people, the poor man with you" (Exodus 22:24). In Hebrew, the verse uses the word "im" — "if" — which normally introduces a conditional statement. If this happens, then that follows. A reader might naturally conclude that lending to the poor is optional. You may lend if you choose, but you are not required to do so.
The Mekhilta rejects this reading outright. This "if" is not conditional. It is mandatory. Lending money to the poor is not a generous suggestion — it is a commandment.
But the rabbis do not simply assert this. They prove it from a second verse: "Lend shall you lend him" (Deuteronomy 15:8). The doubled verb — "lend shall you lend" — carries unmistakable force in biblical Hebrew. This is the emphatic imperative, the Torah's way of removing all ambiguity. You shall lend. Period.
The Mekhilta uses the Deuteronomy verse to retroactively clarify the Exodus verse. What appeared optional in one passage is revealed as obligatory by another. The Torah speaks across its own books, and the rabbis insist on reading it as a unified whole. A verse in Exodus cannot be understood in isolation when Deuteronomy addresses the same subject with greater force.
The practical implication is revolutionary. Lending to the poor is not charity in the modern sense — not a voluntary act of generosity that earns the lender moral credit. It is a legal obligation. A person who has the means to lend and refuses is not merely ungenerous. He is in violation of Torah law. The poor person's need creates the wealthy person's duty.