Our parasha commands us to be forthcoming in giving loans to the poor while also showing forbearance in collecting such loans.

“If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it before the sun sets. It is the only available clothing—it is what covers the skin. In what else shall [your neighbor] sleep? Therefore, if that person cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate (Shemos 24-26).

Similar mitzvos appear elsewhere in the Torah. In terms of being forthcoming, the Chinukh counts  “If you lend money” in our parasha as commandment 66. “To lend money to the poor…surely open your hand” (Devarim 15:8) as commandment 579. “To give charity to the poor,” which includes loans, and “Be careful not to have a disgraceful thought” (Devarim 15:9) as commandment 580 – referring to the prohibition of refraining from giving a loan due to the approaching Shemita year.

Regarding forbearance, we have the prohibition on dunning a borrower when he is unable to pay (Chinukh 67); not to impose interest on loans (Chinukh 68); not to collect interest (Chinukh 343); not to collect a loan after cancellation in the Shemita year (Chinukh 475) as well as to cancel such a loan (Chinukh 477); not to take as a pledge a utensil needed for preparing food (Chinukh 583); not to take a pledge forcefully (Chinukh 585); and to return a pledge that the borrower has need of (Chinukh 586 and 587); and not to take a pledge from a widow (Chinukh 591).

An inherent tension is revealed: The more forbearance we require of the lender, the less inclined people will be to lend money. This led to leniencies in the commandments of forbearance, with an eye toward encouraging people to be forthcoming.

The Mishna (Sheviis 10:4) tells us that a special innovation called a prozbul allows loan collection even after the Shemita year.

[A loan secured by] a prozbul is not cancelled. This was enacted by Hillel the Elder, for when he observed people refraining from lending to one another and thus transgressing what is written in the Torah, “Beware, lest you harbor the base thought ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,’ so that you are mean to your needy kinsman and give him nothing.”

Another innovation was the heter iska, a carefully crafted partnership agreement that makes it almost certain that the silent partner will obtain agreed-upon profit payments almost identical to those of interest payments. This gained very rapid acceptance because the poskim recognized that it greatly increased the availability of credit for businessmen.

In the area of interpretation, we find that the poskim sought leniencies to allow debt collection even when there is a concern for dunning an indigent borrower. The Rambam (Loans 1:2)  writes: “Whenever a person presses a poor person for payment when he knows that he does not have the means to repay the debt, he transgresses a negative commandment. As Shemos 22:24 states: ‘Do not act as a creditor toward him.’” Later authorities infer that only when the lender is certain that the borrower can’t pay – a rather unusual situation – is he forbidden from seeking collection.

A leniency based on custom is found in the Responsa Rivash (484). The Rivash found that his new community would require debtors to provide a guarantor, otherwise they would be detained. Rivash tried to reverse this custom but was persuaded that this measure was necessary to encourage giving loans.

Despite these leniencies, a person should always strive to conduct himself towards a poor borrower with the restraint implied by the Torah commandments. The Midrash (Shemos Rabba 31:1) states:

Every creature is indebted to God, but He is clement and merciful, and pardons prior [sins] . . .This can be likened to borrowing from a moneylender who then forgot [the loan]. After a while [the borrower] presented himself and said, “I know that I owe you [money]. [The moneylender] said, Why did you mention it? It was completely forgone and forgotten. So it is with God. His creatures sin before him, and He sees that they don’t repent, and even so He forgoes [punishment].

The Midrash suggests that the kind of generous forbearance we would like to receive from Hashem is the kind of forbearance we should show to indigent borrowers.