Q&A: Borrowing with Interest
Borrowing with Interest
Question
A person who borrowed money with interest is, from the standpoint of civil law, obligated to repay the interest, but from the standpoint of Torah law he is forbidden to do so. So that means (right?) that the interest belongs to the lender, but the Torah forbids the borrower to return it to him. Now if the lender comes and steals the money, has he violated "do not steal" (the religious prohibition of theft, of course)?
Answer
Of course he has violated the prohibitions of neshekh and tarbit, and in the case of fixed interest it is even recoverable through the courts, so it is clear that this is theft. And even with non-fixed interest, logic indicates that this is theft. The moment Torah law says not to pay, that means the Torah removes this money from his ownership claim (otherwise the one holding it could not betroth a woman with it), and now whoever takes it is a thief.
Discussion on Answer
The borrower, who is holding the money, can betroth a woman with it and do anything he wants with it. So the money is his. And he also owes the lender nothing. So anyone who takes it from him is a thief.
It is true that if he pays the interest to the lender, the lender will acquire it, because he gives it to him willingly.
That seems difficult. The medieval authorities already wrote that if the borrower returned the interest money to the lender, then although they violated the prohibition of interest, the lender nevertheless acquires the interest money, because from a legal standpoint the money always belonged to the borrower. (See Sha'arei Yosher 5:3.)
So it would seem that even if the lender got up on his own and took the money from the borrower, he still did not violate "do not steal." No?