Money can be a sensitive subject, which is one reason Torah bans charging interest among our people. (The Qur’an does the same for Muslims.)
Torah and Qur’an are aiming at far more than money: after all, most of us don’t lend money.
This mitzvah is really about relationships and right use of power, which spiritually are far more important than money. This mitzvah aims at the heart of our greatest interest of all.
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Behar-Behukotai 5786 (2026)
Money can be a sensitive subject, because money can warp relationships. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” wrote Shakespeare in Hamlet.
In similar spirit, Torah outright bans charging interest on loans among us. But this mitzvah is really about much more than economics. It’s about our relationships and our use of power.
This week’s double Torah portion teaches (Leviticus 25:35-38):
| וְכִֽי־יָמ֣וּךְ אָחִ֔יךָ וּמָ֥טָה יָד֖וֹ עִמָּ֑ךְ וְהֶֽחֱזַ֣קְתָּ בּ֔וֹ גֵּ֧ר … אַל־תִּקַּ֤ח מֵֽאִתּוֹ֙ נֶ֣שֶׁךְ וְתַרְבִּ֔ית וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וְחֵ֥י אָחִ֖יךָ עִמָּֽךְ׃ אֶ֨ת־כַּסְפְּךָ֔ לֹֽא־תִתֵּ֥ן ל֖וֹ בְּנֶ֑שֶׁךְ וּבְמַרְבִּ֖ית לֹא־תִתֵּ֥ן אָכְלֶֽךָ׃ אֲנִ֗י יהו׳׳ה֙ אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־הוֹצֵ֥אתִי אֶתְכֶ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם … לִהְי֥וֹת לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִֽים׃ | If your brother comes under your [economic power], let him live beside you: do not take from him interest in advance or for later repayment. Have awe of your God [so] your brother can live beside you. Do not lend your money at advance interest or give food at accrued interest. I am YHVH your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt … to be your God. |
The Qur’an taught much the same thing: “O believers! Be mindful of Allah and do not charge interest” (Qur’an, Al-Baqarah 278). Our cousin peoples both were onto something.
But what exactly? And why? And so what, if we don’t lend money? Why should we care?
Long ago, Jews and Muslims regarded fellow religionists as family, literally siblings. Just as it was unthinkable to charge a blood sibling interest, tradition extended this same grace to the broader “family” in the spirit of everything sacred.
Immediately we see that embedded here is a key teaching about our sacred connectedness.
Yet even thousands of years ago, Jewish tradition understood economics. Without interest, many wouldn’t lend, there couldn’t be investment, and the poor would stay poor however hard they worked. So Jewish and Islamic traditions both held that reasonable interest was not unethical, if done the right way. Instead of interest, lender and borrower became business partners in collateral. (If you’re interested, read about the heter iska.)
But to this day, Hebrew Free Loan Societies (click for Stamford’s version) provide no-interest loans for worthy causes such as emergent home or car repairs, medical expenses, funeral costs, camp tuition, vocational or technical education, and immersive Jewish experiences. Our Torah quote is the reason why HFLS loans are “free.”
A no-interest loan, Maimonides taught, is one of life’s great acts. Why? To help, of course, but even more to not hold power over another. Money and economics can shift relationships from equals (living “beside” each other) to subservients (living “under” each other).
We who are the descendants of slaves must never, ever, try to wield power wrongly over others. Even if we don’t lend money, we can “hold over” others other things. We might hold over others past favors we’ve done, or a threat of betraying a confidence, or exert another kind of power. We might “keep score” in relationships (especially ones closest to us). We might even wield our hurts and sensitivities to exert power over others rather than try to heal them.
All of these non-money things can wrongly wield power over another. Torah is urging us that our spiritual ideal is radical equality in shared dignity and grace. As the descendants of freed slaves, our purpose must be not to control but to liberate, not to put others down but to lift them up.
These, my friends, are our greatest interests of all.
David Evan Markus 