ענין איסור ריבית בעבודת האדם וביאור דברי הספרא "כל המקבל עליו עול רבית מקבל עול שמים וכו'"
Parshas Behar
1. In this week's Parsha the Torah instructs that one should not give (nor take)1 any interest, and it concludes: "אני ה' אלקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים גו' להיות לכם לאלקים" ("I am the L‑rd your G‑d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt... to be your G‑d"). On this the Sifra says: "מכאן אמרו כל המקבל עליו עול ריבית מקבל עול שמים וכל הפורק ממנו עול ריבית פורק ממנו עול שמים . . שכל המודה במצות ריבית מודה ביציאת מצרים וכל הכופר במצות ריבית כאילו כופר ביציאת מצרים" ("From here they said: whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of interest accepts upon himself the yoke of Heaven, and whoever casts off from himself the yoke of interest casts off from himself the yoke of Heaven... for whoever acknowledges the mitzvah of interest acknowledges the Exodus from Egypt, and whoever denies the mitzvah of interest is as if he denies the Exodus from Egypt"). (That is: from here they learned and said: everyone who takes upon himself the yoke of [being careful about] interest takes upon himself the yoke of Heaven, and everyone who throws off from himself the yoke of interest throws off from himself the yoke of Heaven. Everyone who acknowledges the mitzvah of interest acknowledges the Exodus from Egypt, and everyone who denies the mitzvah of interest is as though he denies the Exodus from Egypt.)
We need to understand the special connection of the mitzvah of interest (more than other mitzvos) to the Exodus from Egypt and to accepting the yoke of Heaven.
The connection of interest to the Exodus is explained by Rashi (following the Gemara): just as at the Exodus G‑d distinguished between a firstborn and one who was not a firstborn, so too G‑d knows, and will exact payment from, one who lends a Jew money on interest and claims that the money belongs to a non-Jew. This explanation, however, clarifies the connection of interest to the Exodus only in the specific case where someone lends money on interest saying "של נכרי הם" ("they belong to a non-Jew"); and even in that case itself — not when he says it because, if it were known that the money belongs to a Jew, the borrower would not want to borrow,1 or the court would not permit it; but only when he thinks, G‑d forbid, that G‑d does not discern that the money is his own — then it is a denial of the Exodus, when G‑d did discern, etc. This is no explanation, however, of the connection of the mitzvah of interest as a whole to the Exodus from Egypt.
Also, the connection of interest to the yoke of Heaven requires further explanation. There are commentators who explain it as follows: when a person lends money to another Jew without interest, and does not think about the profit from it, he thereby shows his trust in G‑d and accepts upon himself the yoke of Heaven — the command to help a fellow Jew without any gain; whereas one who lends on interest shows by this that he does not trust in G‑d, and he casts off from himself the yoke of Heaven.
This explanation, however, is not understood:
a) This is connected not with the yoke of Heaven, but with the trait of trust (bitachon).
b) A lack of trust is connected not with the matter of interest, but with acts of kindness (gemilus chassadim). Before the verses of the mitzvah of interest, the Parsha says: "וכי ימוך אחיך גו' והחזקת בו" ("If your brother becomes impoverished... you shall support him")2 — one should lend to him without any profit. When someone does not want to lend his money without profit, out of fear for his livelihood, because of which he wants to do business (and earn) with all his money, with every penny, he thereby shows that he lacks trust. But he does not transgress the prohibition of interest (for he did not lend at all).
2. Accepting the yoke of Heaven — whose expression is the fulfillment of the mitzvos — means: from Above, G‑d participates in the service (avodah) of Jews. The explanation of the blessing over mitzvos is well known:3 "אשר קדשנו במצותיו" ("Who has sanctified us with His commandments") — with G‑d's mitzvos; G‑d too fulfills the mitzvos. And in this there are two aspects:4 a) the fulfillment of the mitzvos Above that precedes the fulfillment of the mitzvos by Jews, as our Sages say: "מה שהוא עושה הוא אומר לישראל לעשות" ("What He does, He tells Israel to do"); b) the fulfillment of the mitzvos Above that is brought about through the fulfillment of the mitzvos by Jews, as our Sages say:5 "כל הקורא בתורה הקב"ה קורא ושונה כנגדו" ("Whoever studies Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, studies and reviews opposite him"); and as it is with Torah, so it is also with mitzvos.
It is understood that the fact that the mitzvos of Jews bring about the fulfillment of the mitzvos Above is not because there is any comparison between them, for a created being has no comparison whatsoever to the Creator; rather, so it arose in His blessed Will, that the mitzvos that Jews perform should, as it were, have an effect Above.
We must therefore understand: what indeed is the reason for this Will, that the avodah of Jews below should, as it were, have an effect Above, even though they are beyond all comparison?
The matter of the fulfillment of the mitzvos Above that precedes the avodah of Jews below is understood, since through "what He does," He gives power "to Israel to do" — power for Jews' fulfillment of the mitzvos. But what is the explanation for the fact that through what Jews do, the very same thing should also be effected Above?
3. To understand this, we must first explain the general concept of avodah. Seemingly, why is there need for the order that Jews must have the matter of avodah? Let G‑d give them all the influences from Above, by way of an arousal from Above (isarusa dil'eila). Especially according to what is known, that the intention of creation was "כדי להטיב לברואיו" ("in order to bestow good upon His creatures"),6 since G‑d is the ultimate good, and "טבע הטוב להטיב" ("the nature of the good is to do good")7 — so from the standpoint of doing good, the creatures should have received all their influences even without avodah?
The explanation of this is: When is the influence truly good? When the recipient receives it having earned it, not for free. When one gives someone a free gift, for which he did not toil, it is called "נהמא דכסופא" ("bread of shame"). And since "the nature of the good is to do good," G‑d wanted to give Jews the true good; therefore He established that they should receive the influences specifically through avodah.
According to this we will also understand why the avodah of Jews has, as it were, an effect Above:
When one receives payment (an influence) for work (not for free), but the work is of a kind that brings no benefit to the one who pays (the giver), then the reward received for that work is still within the category of "bread of shame," since the recipient knows that the work for which he is given the influence accomplishes nothing, and consequently no reward is really due for it.
Therefore, the order was established from Above that the avodah of Jews should have an effect Above (the very same mitzvos that they do below), so that the reward should not be "bread of shame" at all; their avodah does accomplish something Above — so they truly earn reward for their avodah.8
4. Another reason: Work which in itself brings no benefit — even if one receives reward for it — has no vitality and enjoyment in the doing of it. Consequently, it is very hard to carry out the work, and it is very exhausting — "עבודת פרך" ("crushing labor").9 (As my father-in-law, the Rebbe [the Previous Rebbe], related a parable about this: A nobleman called in a peasant and ordered him to "work" with a sickle — to move it back and forth in the nobleman's room exactly as he does when working in the field — and he undertook to pay him for the "work." At first the peasant agreed, but after doing the work for a short while he regretted it, arguing: "Rabotu nie vidat" — the work cannot be seen.)
Therefore, it was arranged from Above that the avodah of Jews should have an effect Above, for this knowledge gives vitality and enjoyment in the avodah. Also, this knowledge gives strength to stand up against the evil inclination,10 when one feels that the avodah reaches even His very Essence and Being, as it were.
5. Since all the influences from Above come through the avodah of Jews, then just as this is so with regard to the particular influence of each individual mitzvah — a mitzvah Above is brought about through the very same mitzvah that Jews do — so too is it regarding the general matter itself: that the avodah of Jews should have an effect Above — this too comes through avodah. And that avodah is the mitzvah of interest.
Interest means: receiving profit from money for lending it — that is, receiving profit for that which was once his money (even though now the money has already left his domain and passed into the domain of the borrower), since by lending the money back then, he (the lender) gave the borrower at that time the opportunity to do business with it. Guarding oneself from interest means receiving profit only from that which belongs to him now. (This is indeed also the concept of "היתר עיסקא" (heter iska, a permitted business arrangement), whereby part of the money remains the lender's — he gives it to the borrower only as a deposit — and he receives profit only from the part of the money that still belongs to him now; and similarly with the hiring of an animal and of utensils.)
Just as a Jew conducts himself with another Jew, so is he dealt with from Above: If he transgresses the prohibition of interest — he takes profit now for having previously given him money — then the conduct from Above toward him is also so: now, from Above, there is, as it were, no participation in his avodah;11 there is only the giving of "money" — power, the fulfillment of the mitzvos Above — before he begins to "do business," to do his avodah; this gives him the power to do the avodah. But when he fulfills the mitzvah of interest, he is dealt with likewise from Above: not only is he given power beforehand to do the avodah, but from Above there is participation with him now, in the avodah itself — "the Holy One, blessed be He, studies and reviews opposite him."
And this is the connection of the mitzvah of interest with accepting the yoke of Heaven and with the Exodus from Egypt: the mitzvah of interest is a general matter (and order),12 through which G‑d, as it were, becomes a partner with the Jew in his avodah — accepting the yoke of Heaven (fulfilling the mitzvos); and since he is bound with G‑d, he goes out of all constraints and limitations (meitzarim) — the Exodus from Egypt (Mitzrayim).
6. "צדיקים דומים לבוראם" ("Tzaddikim resemble their Creator").13 Just as the conduct of G‑d is that not only does He give power beforehand for the avodah of Torah and mitzvos, but also afterwards, when Jews are already fulfilling mitzvos in practice, He too fulfills the mitzvos that Jews do — the same conduct exists, as it were, with tzaddikim, and especially with the leaders (Nesi'im) of Israel, who are the intermediary that connects Jews with G‑d:14 not only do they give power to their emissaries (shluchim) to carry out their mission afterwards, but they themselves also do the very same avodah that they placed upon their emissaries.
This conduct was seen most openly with my father-in-law, the Rebbe: not only did he send emissaries and give them the power to accomplish in strengthening Judaism in general and spreading the wellsprings [of Chassidus] in particular, but he himself always (not only in the first years, but also in the later years, when he had already raised up students and students of students who were able to do the work) personally occupied himself with the avodah.
And this is a directive for all those who are bound to him and follow in his footsteps: one should not be satisfied with having raised up students who are already engaged in disseminating Torah and spreading the wellsprings, making the calculation: since the work that their students do comes about through their influence, they, the mentors, will consequently also receive the additional light that is drawn down through the students' avodah; they themselves no longer need to work with others, but will rather occupy themselves with Torah for themselves alone. Such conduct — receiving…
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Notes
1) For the borrower also transgresses (based on Devarim 23:20). Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe, beginning of the Laws of Interest.
2) Behar 25:35.
3) Likkutei Torah, Va'eschanan 9d; Shir HaShirim 12a.
4) See above, p. 958, in the note, and the sources cited there.
5) Tanna D'vei Eliyahu, beginning of ch. 18. Yalkut Shimoni, Eichah, remez 1034.
6) Etz Chaim, Shaar HaKelalim, at the beginning.
7) Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, ch. 4.
8) And although this is not due to the avodah itself (for there is no comparison between a created being and the Creator), but only because so it arose in His blessed Will, as mentioned above — nevertheless, by virtue of the Will Above that the avodah of created beings should hold a place and be worthwhile, after the revelation of this Will it truly becomes so (similar to what is explained in Derech Mitzvosecha 47b).
9) Toras Kohanim on Behar 25:43 (cited in Rashi). See also the maamar beginning "Karov Havaya" 5690 (in Sefer HaMaamarim Kuntreisim, vol. 1), section 2.
10) Note also the maamar beginning "Vayikach Haman" (Hosafos to Torah Or).
11) Based on this, one can also understand the reason why one who lends on interest does not rise at the Resurrection of the Dead (Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe, Laws of Interest, sec. 2; see Shemos Rabbah 31:15; Hosafos to the Yerushalmi (Vilna), end of Berachos; Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer, end of ch. 33). For the concept of the mitzvos is that from the physicality of the world (which comes into being and perishes — death) one makes a vessel and a dwelling for holiness (life and eternity) — see the maamar beginning "Shuvah Yisrael" 5695 (Sefer HaKuntreisim, vol. 2) — and through this avodah one brings about the Resurrection of the Dead. Now, the avodah of created beings is, in itself, limited, and the eternity that is drawn down through the mitzvos (see Tanya ch. 25) comes about through one's joining (from the term "tzavsa," connection) with "the L‑rd your G‑d," Who is living, and drawing down eternity from beyond nature — causing that the Holy One, blessed be He, should study, etc., i.e., specifically the mitzvos of the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore, one who lends on interest, who thereby brings about a conduct in which there is no participation in his avodah — the opposite of the concept of the Resurrection of the Dead; on the contrary, he "bites" and diminishes from holiness (life) — "neshech" ("biting"), and "from the destruction of Jerusalem, Tyre was filled" (kelipah — death) — "tarbis" ("increase") (Yahel Or 15a, d) — his punishment is measure for measure: he does not rise at the Resurrection of the Dead. This also explains why, in Perek Chelek, one who lends on interest is not counted among those who have no share in the World to Come — for this is included in the category of one who denies (and acts contrary to the concept of) the Resurrection of the Dead (from the sicha of Shabbos Parshas Mishpatim 5723).
12) And this is what our Sages said (Shemos Rabbah 31:4), that one who does not lend on interest is "as if he fulfilled all the mitzvos" — for through fulfilling the mitzvah of interest a general order is established: the Holy One, blessed be He, participating in all His mitzvos.
13) Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5.
14) See Toras Shalom, p. 158.
Key Lesson
G‑d set things up so that a Jew's mitzvos truly accomplish something Above — so his reward is earned, not "bread of shame," and his avodah is alive and joyful; guarding against interest, receiving profit only from what is truly one's own now, is what makes G‑d a partner in that avodah. Likewise, a mentor should not rest on the work of his students but must keep doing the avodah himself, just as the Previous Rebbe did.