PEH017

A lent B 1,000 florins to repay a loan to a non-Jew after their return from overseas. After five years, B and the non-Jew returned from overseas. It was revealed that B had kept the money for himself the entire time. A dispute arose between A and B regarding the interest owed to the non-Jew (5 percent) and also due to the depreciation of the gold, which had become cheaper due to import from the north. B refused to take responsibility for this as well, claiming that A had given him gold, and he had repaid it in gold. Abraham ben Jakob ben Salomo de Meza ruled that B should pay interest, not according to the strict letter of the Torah, but based on a sense of fairness.

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1729-04-22

1729-08-26

Athias, David Israel