על המידות הטובות י״דOn the Virtues 14
א׳
1[82] He forbids anyone to lend money on interest to a brother, meaning by this name not merely a child of the same parents, but anyone of the same citizenship or nation. For he does not think it just to amass money bred from money as their yeanlings are from cattle.
ב׳
2[83] And he bids them not take this as a ground for holding back or showing unwillingness to contribute, but without restriction of hand and heart to give free gifts to those who need, reflecting that a free gift is in a sense a loan that will be repaid by the recipient, when times are better, without compulsion and with a willing heart. This is the best course, but, if they are unwilling to give, they should at least lend with all readiness and alacrity, not with the prospect of receiving back anything except the principal.
ג׳
3[84] For in this way the poor would not become more helpless, by being forced to pay more than they received, and the contributors would not be wronged though they recovered only what they spent. Yet not “only.” For with the capital in place of the interest which they determine not to accept they receive a further bonus of the fairest and most precious things that human life has to give, mercy, neighbourliness, charity, magnanimity, a good report and good fame. And what acquisition can rival these?
ד׳
4[85] Nay, even the Great King will appear as the poorest of men if compared with a single virtue. For his wealth is soulless, buried deep in store-houses and recesses of the earth, but the wealth of virtue lies in the sovereign part of the soul, and the purest part of existence, that is heaven, and God the parent of all claim it as their own. And can we then hold the poverty-in-wealth of the money-grubbing usurers to be of any account? They may seem to be kings with purses full of gold, but they never even in their dreams have had a glimpse of the wealth that has eyes to see.
ה׳
5[86] But there are some who have reached such a pitch of depravity that, when they have no money, they supply food on loan on condition that they receive in return a greater quantity than they gave. It would be long before these people would give a free meal to beggars if they create famine when they have plenty and abundance and draw a revenue out of the wretches’ empty stomachs and as good as measure out food and drink on a balance to make sure that they do not overweight the scale.
ו׳
6[87] So then he absolutely commands those who shall be members of his holy commonwealth to discard such methods of profit-making, for these practices show the marks of a slavish and utterly illiberal soul transformed into savagery and the nature of wild beasts.