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Why does the Torah (תורה) write "if you lend money" (im kesef talveh) when lending is obligatory? The unusual formulation teaches that the obligation isn't merely to lend—it's to develop genuine care and concern for the borrower. The shiur explores how interpersonal mitzvos must be performed with emotional connection, not just technical compliance, and why brachos are never made on such mitzvos.
Rabbi Zweig opens with a fundamental question on Parshas Mishpatim's laws of lending money. The Torah (תורה) writes "im kesef talveh es ami" (Shemos 21:24)—literally "if you lend money to my people." Rashi (רש"י) explains that although "im" usually means a voluntary "if," this is one of three exceptions where it indicates obligation. But this creates a glaring textual problem: why include the word "im" at all? If the Torah simply wrote "kesef talveh," it would clearly mean "you shall lend money" without any ambiguity. Why choose the most awkward formulation possible, requiring the Oral Law to clarify that "im" here means "you must"? To answer this, Rabbi Zweig analyzes a sugya in Kiddushin 40a regarding categories of tzaddikim and resha'im. The Gemara (גמרא) infers from Yeshaya's phrase "imru tzaddik ki tov" (say to the tzaddik who is good) that there exists both a good tzaddik and a not-good tzaddik. Similarly, from "hoy rasha ra" (woe to the wicked who is evil), we learn of wicked people who are evil and those who are not. The Gemara explains: a good tzaddik keeps laws between man and God plus interpersonal laws; a tzaddik she'eino tov keeps only laws between man and God. A rasha ra violates both categories; a rasha she'eino ra violates laws between man and God but keeps interpersonal laws.
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Shemos 22:24 (Parshas Mishpatim)
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