ABSTRACT
The sociological structure of the Jewish people is evident in the Torah's tzedakah legislation. There was a time when the Hebrew word for a merchant was "non-Jew". The higher form of tzedakah is the free loan. Every Jewish community that considers itself to have come of age has a Hebrew Free Loan Society. What the Torah prohibits is not only usury but also the taking of any kind of financial interest. One of the happiest aspects of American Jewish life was the work of the "landsmanschaften" engaged en masse in the free loan. They lent every immigrant a small sum and a basket for goods out of which developed his later affluence. But the reconstructive way of tzedakah does not solve the whole problem. The boldest and most farsighted method of dealing with poverty is the preventive one. It is also one of the most difficult methods. The Torah differed fundamentally from other sources in its interpretations concerning property.
