[Avodah] Currency and Bond Trading; Ribis

[Saul Mashbaum]

RMB:
>>
If ribis were inherently wrong, it would be assur to charge nachriim as
well. I therefore would argue that ribis isn't a lack of tzedeq or din,
but a lack of achdus of kelal Yisrael. As the pasuq says, "Vekhi yamukh
ACHIKHA umatah yado..." And similarly after the ribis, "vechai ACHIKHA
imakh". (Vayiqra 25:36, lefi BM 62a) The problem isn't that it's unjust,
but that it's unbrotherly.
>>


The Torah Temima (who was, as is well known, a banker) relates to the
question of how the Torah prohibited taking ribit from Jews, and permitted
taking it from non-Jews, and says something similar to what RMB is saying
here.

Consider an economic cooperative association. Members agree to treat fellow
members according to set rules, offering each other economic privileges not
offered to non-members. One would assume that members do not consider
themselves "better" than non-members, or that they feel  they are justified
in dealing unethically with non-members; they are just offering fellow
members some special discounts, which they themselves are entitled to
receive from fellow members. In regard to ribit, Jews are such an economic
cooperative association.

See TT to Dvarim 23:21 d"h Umnam

Saul Mashbaum
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20090210/3e1cdfe8/attachment-0002.htm>