ABSTRACT
Why is usury forbidden? The Mishnah ( A20 ) does not explain, but in the near-contemporaneous Tosefta—the earliest commentary on the Mishnah—there is an attempt at an explanation. Usury here is compared (unfavorably) with cardinal sins such as murder—whereas merely calling someone a murderer is asking for trouble, usury is conducted publicly, recorded and kept for posterity, and signed by witnesses. It is then no less (but also no more) than a public display of disregard for God’s law. Usury functions here, as in the rest of classical rabbinic literature, in the realm of laws related to commerce and protection of private property—not those intended to ameliorate the plight of the poor.
