Negative Commandment 236 (Digest)
Borrowing with Interest
"You shall not give interest to your brother"—Deuteronomy 23:20.
One may not take a loan – whether money or any other item – from a fellow Jew if it involves payment of interest. Had the Torah not specified this prohibition, we'd have thought that the prohibition against loaning with interest lies only with the lender, but that the borrower does not transgress (similar to the prohibition against defrauding, where only the defrauder transgresses, not the defrauded).
In addition to this prohibition, the borrower also transgresses the prohibition against "placing a stumbling block in the path of a blind person."
The 236th prohibition is that the borrower is also forbidden from borrowing with interest.
If not for this prohibition on the borrower to borrow with interest, one might think that only the lender transgresses, since he is the wrongdoer; not the borrower, since he merely allows himself to be overcharged. This would be similar to ona'a, which applies only to the one who overcharges, not the one who pays. It was therefore necessary to have a separate prohibition that the borrower shall not borrow money with interest.
The source of this prohibition is G‑d's statement (exalted be He), "Do not deduct interest from your brother, whether it is interest for money, interest for food,..."
The Oral Torah explains [that this phrase should be read,] "Do not allow to be deducted from your brother..." [therefore applying to the borrower, not the lender]. Our Sages stated explicitly in tractate Bava Metzia: "A borrower transgresses 'Do not deduct' and 'Do not place a stumbling block before the blind,' " as explained in our discussion of that mitzvah.
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