Doing Business with G-D.
Courtesy of MeaningfulLife.com

If your brother grow poor, and his means fail, you shall support him [with a loan]... Do not take interest and usury from him... I am G-d your G-d, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt of Egypt... to be your G-d

Leviticus 25:35-38

From these [concluding words], our sages have derived: One who accepts upon himself the prohibition of usury, accepts upon himself the yoke of Heaven; but one who rejects the prohibition of usury, rejects the yoke of Heaven

Sifra, ibid

The Torah strictly forbids the collection or payment of usury on a loan granted from one Jew to another. However, there is a procedure, called heter iska ("partnership clause"), by which it is permitted to profit from funds extended to one's fellow. In a heter iska contract it is stipulated that the money is not a loan but an investment in a joint business venture, with profits to be shared between the owner of the capital and the one who has been granted the right to use it and deal with it.

Why is interest on a loan forbidden while profit-sharing on an investment is permitted?

The legal difference is that in the case of a loan, the money is no longer the property of the lender. From the moment the borrower receives it, it is his in every respect (it is only that in receiving the loan he assumes the obligation to make a payment for the same amount to the lender at some future date). So if the lender were to collect a fee or percentage in return for the benefit the borrower is deriving from the money, he would be being rewarded for the fact that the money was once his, not for something that he is contributing now. This the Torah forbids. On the other hand, in the case of a heter iska agreement, the money remains the property of the investor (in partnership with the one to whom the money has been entrusted) and the compensation he receives is not "free profit," but profit that his money is currently generating. (This is also the difference between extending a loan in return for interest, which is forbidden, and renting a home or other object to another in return for payment, which is permitted. While loaned money becomes the property of the borrower, a rented object remains the property of its owner.)

Body and Soul

The Zohar states that Torah has both a body and a soul. The Torah's "body" is its physical dimension: its recounting of the physical history of the universe and its instruction of the physical life of man. Animating this body is a soul---a spiritual dimension in which every law and event, and their every detail, has its metaphysical significance.

Body and soul complement and fulfill each other. The body is a vehicle for the soul, extending the soul's reach to areas it could not touch on its own; the body of Torah is its soul's implementer, realizing its ethereal concepts as concrete truths in a concrete world. On the other hand, a body without a soul is dark and cold: often, a law or event in Torah might seem dry, prosaic or trivial, until it is viewed in the elucidating light of its spiritual import.

The same applies to the laws of usury and heter iska. Viewed solely in terms of their application to our financial lives, these might seem highly technical or even pedantic; heter iska sounds like an elaborate loophole by which to circumvent the prohibition of usury. Is there really that much of a difference between these two ways of being rewarded for granting use of one's capital to another---a difference equivalent (as the above-quoted Sifra states) to the difference between accepting the very notion of G-d's authority or rejecting it, G-d forbid? For this we must look to the soul of this law, to the concept behind its material incarnation.

Don't Sit Back and Enjoy the Ride!
By Mordechai Wollenberg

This week's Torah reading speaks about the prohibition of lending money on interest. The problem with lending on interest is that the money has now passed on to the other party, yet I continue to receive benefit for the use of the money despite its no longer being in my possession. I receive profits in return for a one-time effort a long time ago, even without any continuing effort on my part.

In whatever field it may be -- work, family life, educating children, etc. -- we find ourselves, at one time or another, in a position to influence others and to advise and guide people in a positive manner. When we feel we have had an impact -- that we have managed to impart positive values, methods or attitudes to another person -- it gives us a feeling of accomplishment.

There is always the danger, however, that we sit back and bask in the glory of our accomplishments. We think to ourselves, now that we have influenced someone else we can relax and reap the benefits of their achievements. Along comes the Torah and tells us that this is not so. No matter how many others we may have influenced or helped, it does not in any way change our own obligations to achieve to the fullest degree, to be a living example to others of the values we cherish.

They used to say that what singles out an Israeli Army commander is that rather than saying "Forward, soldiers!" they would say, "After me!" I am with you, I am "one of you." Whatever I taught you, I am doing exactly the same thing myself. We are all together in the same boat.

No matter how much we achieve, or how many others we guide, we must never rest on our laurels. We cannot rely on prior investments from years ago. We have to remain active ourselves, true to ourselves and our values.