Jewish Law in Transition
How Economic Forces Overcame the Prohibition Against Lending on Interest
by Hillel Gamoran
Hardback (Out of print)
(October 2008)
ISBN: 9780878204625
5.98 x 9.02 inches
Price: $35.00
On back order
The prohibition against lending on interest (Exodus 22:24) is a well-known biblical law: “If you lend to any one of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him.” This book explains how and when this law of high moral standing collapsed over the course of the centuries.
The prohibition against lending on interest (Exodus 22:24) is a well-known biblical law: “If you lend to any one of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him.” This prohibition was intended to prevent the wealthy from exploiting the unfortunate. In the course of time, it was seen to have consequences that militated against the economic welfare of Jewish society as a whole. As a result, Jewish law (halakhah) has over the centuries relaxed the biblical injunction, allowing interest charges despite the biblical prohibition. Hillel Gamoran seeks to explain how and when this law of high moral standing collapsed and fell over the course of the centuries. Talmudic rabbis believed that business agreements violated the biblical prohibition against lending in five areas: loans of produce, advance payment for the purchase of goods, buying on credit, mortgages, and investments. The Bible does not consider any of these activities, but all arise in postbiblical literature. How was the biblical law to be applied to situations that had not occurred in biblical times? And how could the rabbis allow these activities when they were hampered from doing so by the laws against lending on interest? To answer these questions, Gamoran examines the biblical prohibition against lending and postulates when it was written, why it was written, and to whom it applied. He then considers the early and later teachers of the Oral Law, the Tannaim and Amoraim, who expanded discussion of the ban in light of various business activities from 70 C.E. to 500 C.E. Finally, he explores how the original tannaitic proscriptions for each of the five activities were upheld or relaxed over the centuries. Each activity is considered in the period of the Geonim (ca. 650-1050), the Rishonim (ca. 1000-1500), and the Aharonim (ca. 1500-2000). For each period, Gamoran shows how the rabbis struggled with the law and with one another and used inventive interpretation to create the legal fictions necessary for business life to flourish.
- By (author) Hillel Gamoran
Similar Books
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
European Review of Service Economics and Management
De nouveaux horizons pour l’innovation dans les services ? IA, inclusion et responsabilité
Volume 21
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Friedlicher Handel oder umkämpfte Geschäfte?
Handel und Handelsrecht in der Vormoderne zwischen Krieg und Frieden
Global Gulf
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Lobbying for Equality
Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Equality during the French Revolution
Socio-économie du travail
La dégradation du travail au XXIe siècle ? Lectures contemporaines de Harry Braverman
Volume 17
Socio-économie du travail
Le sens du travail, concept scientifique ou instrument du capitalisme ? Volume 1
Volume 18
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
