August 28th: Ki Tetze
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Sometimes we look at Biblical mores and standards, and we think of how idyllic life must have been with this level of righteous simplicity. Other times, we look at the Bible and feel very far away from the values and social understandings of ancient life.
In this week, we have an interesting mixture. First, there is the prohibition against charging interest on loans. Second, there is a serious abrogation of the notion of private property.
Let’s start with private property. In Deuteronomy 23.25, we read:
“When you enter another person’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want, until you are full, but you must not put any in your vessel. When you enter another person’s field of standing grain, you may pluck ears with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.”
In other words, trespassing and helping oneself to another person’s garden or vineyard seem to be fine. The only limitation is that the snack or meal not turn into a harvest. This is very much against our sensibilities today. One would hardly be happy about a neighbor or stranger picking our flowers or apples or tomatoes. Our social contract says that my property is mine, and that others need to stay off. Using someone else’s driveway to back up and change directions is one thing. However, there are limitations that are firmly ingrained in our way of thinking.
(For an example of the fury that our sense of property propriety can ignite, try reading NextDoor.com and see the very animated discussions about dog walkers allowing their dogs to relieve themselves on other people’s lawns.)
Our own sense of private property not withstanding, there is something very nice about having free food available for those in need. The assumption of the Torah is that the percentage of food taken will be small and will not hurt the family who owns and farms the land. And, there is the commandment mentioned many times about helping the poor and the stranger—leaving the corners of the fields unharvested, leaving the gleanings, etc. Whereas we have the United Way, Interfaith Human Services, and the Food Bank, the ancients’ sense of tzedakah was less institutionalized but more available. And, it functioned on the honor system.
The ancients’ understanding of tzedakah also speaks of the Biblical understanding of the origin of our plenty. A few paragraphs before our passage, there is the frequently used phrase, “b’chol mish’lach yadecha, whatever flows to your hand.” The idea is that good fortune and all blessings flow from God. Our efforts may be a factor, but fortune is a factor, too, and we should be cognizant of the Divine’s role in abundance. In other words, the blessings that flow to us are not actually ours. They are God’s, and it is God’s right to have us share some of “ours” with others, particularly those in need.
The question of charging interest is also in that earlier paragraph. In Deuteronomy 23.20, we read, “You shall not deduct interest from loans to your countrymen, whether in money or food or anything that can be deducted as interest; but you may deduct interest from loans to foreigners.”
As you may know, this distinction is why Christian authorities forbade Christians charging each other interest, but allowed Jews to be money-lenders. Reading this passage, the Church classified Jews as foreigners/strangers/aliens. As a result, money-lending became a “Jewish” profession—sometimes with famous results (like the Rothschilds), and other times with tragedy. For many Christians, the only Jews they knew were money-lenders—and, while one is always glad to see the money-lender when borrowing, one is never happy to see the money-lender when it is time to repay the loan. Many of Europe’s anti-Semitic incidents over the last 1000 years began as nothing more than anger at having to pay back borrowed money.
In any event, one cannot imagine modern finance and banking without the ability to charge interest on loans. When capitalism first developed in Holland and Belgium, the religious authorities struggled with this Biblical teaching, but eventually the practicality of financial needs prevailed. It is one thing to lend to a neighbor or relative in need and not charge interest; family and neighborhood bonds influence the repayment. However, when it comes to strangers and various risky uses of money, the lender is taking a real risk, and the interest provides the motivation for the lender to help. Without this accommodation, the development of capitalism and much modern progress would simply not have taken place.
The principle in both of these ancient practices is that members of a community support each other, and one can see this even in modern times in various “Hebrew Free Loan Societies.” The Shefa (the Divine Flow of Blessings) comes from God to us in order for us to pass it on to others. Thus can we participate in God’s blessing process.