Categories of Ribbit: Difference between revisions

# It is considered Biblical ribbit to lend 100 items to get 120 items in return, even if at the time of the return those 120 items afterwards are the same price as the 100 items were at the time of the original loan.<ref>Gemara Bava Metsia 60b, Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 160:21</ref>

# It is considered rabbinic ribbit to lend 100 items to get 100 items in return even if at the time of the return those 100 items are worth more than the price of the 100 items were originally.<ref> The reason that this is only rabbinic ribbit and not Biblical ribbit is because we judge the situation whether something is ribbit or not based on the stipulation at the time of the loan. That is the ruling of the Shach YD 160:35 and Gra 160:53. This is also the opinion of the Ritva 61b s.v. vtisbara, Ran, and Talmid Harashba cited by Bet Yosef 160:21. However, the Hagahot Ashri 6:1 writes that this was the doubt of the gemara whether we judge the deal from the stipulation or the time of the return and if we judge it by the time of the return it is considered ribbit. This case might therefore be ribbit Biblically. The Granat explains that even the Hagahot Ashri only considers it Biblical ribbit if it is an exchange of currency which is uncommon but not with actual commodities which is certainly rabbinic.  </ref>

#Anyone involved in the interest transaction, such as the lender, buyer, witnesses, scribe, or another intermediary is violating the halacha of ribbit.<ref>Bava Metsia 75b, Tur and Shulchan 160:1, Shach 160:1</ref>