Ros. Responsa 21 b

Ros. Responsa 21 b

Usury

1931

Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana

Abraham Salomon Levisson

Levisson

Jore De'a

FALSE

As a last resort, may a Jew arrange for other Jews to receive annual bank interest on capital for maintaining an orphanage, using the orphanage as security.

In our community we have an orphanage whose leaders need to pay large amounts of money for maintenance. And because they knew that the wealthy members would not lend money to the institution without interest, they decided to make a ??? and for this they need the help from one of a money changer. and they were already prepared to go to a non-Jewish money changer, when among them a money changer arose and said why should we lose on the expenses that the non-Jew will charge us, we can do this ourselves. I will prepare the loan documents and the lenders will come to me every year, to collect the interest from my bank, and I will not charge anything to you for my toil and trouble, and all this on the condition that I can use the orphanage as security for the lenders . And now let's go to the head of the Bet din to ask him if he will permit us to do this, or if there is some leniency so that we do not have to lose all this money - and now they came to the rabbi to decide how to proceed.