Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 23:21: Words & Nineteen Letters

God forbid that they would be considered in opposition to the ideas of wise, intelligent men of the nations, or that there be any nagging concerns that someone might stumble because of them. God’s Torah would not cause such a thing, nor would the words of the sages of the Mishnah or Talmud, if they are properly understood. A great example is the law of charging interest. The Torah said, “You may charge interest to the gentile, but not to your brother.” (Deuteronomy 23:21). This means that it is permitted to charge interest to people of other nations as is customary in one’s country, since people there charge each other interest, whether 4% or 5%. However, charging more than the law permits is sinful, and in the case of loans to Jews, we may not even charge 1%. It is a royal decree, like all the laws of the Torah, which are superior to human knowledge. When King David listed the good behavior that a person should never depart from, he said, “Who shall dwell upon your sacred mountain? … He who does not lend money at interest” (Psalms 15:8). The Talmud says this refers to someone who does not charge interest to a gentile, even though that it is permitted by the Torah (Makkot 24a). This is a moral teaching that has been lost. So it is with so many things.

Your mission, however, is not limited by the walls of your house; beyond their limits you must assist with every particle of your strength wherever it is necessary to save the life, the property, or the happiness of a human being, to assist the enterprise of a fellow man with your strength or fortune, or to help suffering creatures of the lower order wherever you can, by the use of your wealth, your physical or intellectual strength, or your word, support the needy, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, console the mourning, heal the sick, care for the unprovided, advise those in need of counsel, teach the ignorant, reconcile those sundered by anger and quarrel — in a word, to be a blessing whenever and wherever you can.

You must not only yourself fulfill these requirements, but see to it, also, that the sources be preserved from which you and your contemporaries and posterity may derive enlightenment and incitement for such life and work — Torah-preservation.