Positive Commandment 198 (Digest)
Taking Interest from a Gentile
"Take interest from the gentile"—Deuteronomy 23:21.
When issuing a loan to a non-Jew, we are commanded to charge interest. [This commandment only applies to a non-Jew who has not accepted upon himself the Seven Noahide Laws.] The Sages enacted various restrictions to this mitzvah [such as forbidding the charging of outright interest].
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> The 198th mitzvah is that we are commanded;) to charge interest to a non-Jew and only then lend him money, in order that we not assist him nor give him rest. Rather we should cause him [financial] loss, even with the kind of interest that we are forbidden from taking from a Jew.
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> The source of this commandment is G‑d's statement;) (exalted be He), "You shall take interest from a non-Jew." The Oral Tradition explains that this does not only give permission, but is a command, as stated in the Sifri: "The phrase 'You shall take interest from a non-Jew' constitutes a positive commandment. The phrase 'You shall not take interest from your brother' constitutes a prohibition."
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> This commandment also has rabbinically ordained conditions, as explained in tractate Bava Metzia.;)
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> Footnotes
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> See Kapach, 5731, footnote 14 regarding all the authorities who say that this is not a commandment. See also Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 12, p. 115ff.
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> 2.
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> Deut. 23:21.
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> 3.
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> See 70b: "R. Chiya the son of R. Huna said, 'You are only allowed to take the minimum necessary to survive.' " See Kapach, 5731, footnote 16.