Lending and the Prohibition of Interest
What is usury [neshekh] and what is increase [tarbit]? It is usury when a man lends a sela for five dinars, or two se’ahs of wheat for three, because he bites [noshekh] [off too much]. And what is increase? When a man increases [his gains] by [selling] produce. How is this so? [If] one bought wheat at a golden dinar [i.e., twenty-five silver dinars] for a kor when that was the market price, and then wheat rose to thirty [silver] dinars [per kor]. [If] he said to him, “Give me my wheat, since I would sell it and buy wine with the proceeds,” and the other said, “Let your wheat be reckoned with me at thirty dinars, and you now have a claim on me for wine [to that value],” although the creditor has no wine.1
Notes
[The purchaser has paid the equivalent of twenty-five silver dinars with the expectation of getting a kor of wheat at a later time. Meanwhile, the market price of wheat rises to thirty silver dinars for a kor. When the purchaser requests the wheat that he purchased so that he can sell it for wine, the seller offers instead to provide thirty silver dinars’ worth of wine directly. This is permitted if the wine is already in his possession. However, if he does not yet have the wine, there is a risk that the value of wine will rise, and he will end up effectively paying interest.—Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
