Hear a teaching that the Rebbe said on Parashat Mishpatim, 5712 (1952):
The verse states: If you lend money to My people, to the poor person who is with you, you shall not act toward him as a creditor.
On the simple level, this verse speaks of the obligation of a Jew to give a loan—an act of kindness—to his fellow Jew, even if he is poor and there is concern that he may not be able to repay. In addition, “you shall not act toward him as a creditor” means that one may not pressure him forcefully, especially if one knows that he does not have the means to repay.
The Rebbe bases this on the words of our Sages in the Midrash on the verse from Parashat Mishpatim, “He tells His words to Jacob.” The attributes of G-d are not like those of flesh and blood. Flesh and blood instruct others to act while they themselves do nothing. G-d is not so; rather, whatever He Himself does, He tells Israel to do and to observe.
When G-d commands us to lend money to His people, He Himself fulfills this command. He gives us life as a loan: the power to succeed, our talents, the parents we were born to, the environment in which we grow, and even the most basic thing of all—breathing without external assistance. All of this we receive from Him as a loan, in order to repay it gradually through positive and good actions that align with His laws and ordinances, written in the guidebook of life, the Torah.
In the words of the Rebbe:
G-d gives a Jew matters and powers even though the Jew gives nothing to G-d in return. At the same time, G-d demands that the Jew utilize all the matters and powers given to him by G-d to fulfill His mission, and to repay the “loan” through His laws and ordinances.
If one asks why G-d gives all of this without asking for collateral, let us consider how things work in the world. To whom does a person give a loan without collateral and without any guarantee of return? Only to family, only to those he truly loves. When you love someone, you give—even when it is not entirely logical.
Money, kesef, also expresses longing and love. “Nichsof nichsafta lebeit avicha—you surely longed for your father’s house,” Lavan said to Jacob, expressing his understanding of Jacob’s desire to leave Haran and return home. Thus we may say: If you lend money to My people—the loving longing of G-d for His people is what causes Him to give a loan without demanding collateral, a long-term loan.
There is another essential point to remember: a loan is meant to be used. When one receives life and strength, talents and abilities from G-d as a loan, one betrays the purpose of the loan by not using them. As the Rebbe explains, the reason the granting of strength by G-d is called a loan is because this strength can be used even for personal and mundane matters, similar to a loan, which is given to be spent.
In the natural order of the world, a loan is given to someone who inspires confidence—someone who shows that he knows how to conduct himself properly, how to use the loan wisely, and how to repay it. Yet the loan of G-d is given even to the poor. Even a person who feels poor in abilities and actions, even one whose heart is broken and crushed within him—to him as well G-d gives a loan. Indeed, precisely because he is poor, G-d is found specifically with the broken and crushed heart.
And one cannot conclude without the most characteristic ending of a true lover of Israel, the Rebbe of Lubavitch. The verse concludes, “You shall not act toward him as a creditor.” As the Rambam rules clearly: anyone who pressures a poor person while knowing that he has nothing with which to repay violates a negative commandment, as it is stated, “You shall not act toward him as a creditor.” G-d fulfills this law as well.
Thus the Rebbe said in the year 5712, only seven years after the horrific Holocaust: when the demand of G-d, through the left line and through suffering, accomplishes nothing, regarding this it is said, “You shall not act toward him as a creditor.”
This follows the words of Isaiah: Why should you be struck further? You continue to rebel. What benefit is there in striking you, if you are not corrected by it, and even after the blows you continue to stray? Therefore, when G-d sees that conduct through the left line achieves nothing, He begins again with the right line—drawing close with kindness and compassion, with revealed and manifest good.
The Rebbe concluded with a prayer, and perhaps also with a statement of certainty: surely G-d will bestow all that is needed—children, life, and abundant sustenance. As the Torah says in our parashah: He will bless your bread and your water, remove illness from your midst; there shall be no miscarriage or barrenness in your land; the number of your days I will fill.
In simple terms: those who have not yet been blessed with children will be blessed this year with living and enduring offspring; those lacking health will be granted proper health; and those lacking livelihood will be granted sustenance in abundance, according to the boundless capacity of G-d, from His full, open, holy, and expansive hand.
And may we merit the coming of our righteous Mashiach, below ten handbreadths, speedily and truly in our days.
Shabbat Shalom