<div dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><br>RMB:<br></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">>></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; ">If ribis were inherently wrong, it would be assur to charge nachriim as<br>
well. I therefore would argue that ribis isn't a lack of tzedeq or din,<br>but a lack of achdus of kelal Yisrael. As the pasuq says, "Vekhi yamukh<br>ACHIKHA umatah yado..." And similarly after the ribis, "vechai ACHIKHA<br>
imakh". (Vayiqra 25:36, lefi BM 62a) The problem isn't that it's unjust,<br>but that it's unbrotherly.<br></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">>></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">See TT to Dvarim 23:21 d"h Umnam</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br>
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Saul Mashbaum</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br>
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