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There was a very different social and moral atmosphere in other nations that were considered enlightened, at the time the Torah was given and many years thereafter. We will give a few examples (see a survey of societies in this regard in Menachem Elon’s book, Individual Freedoms in Collecting Loans).
In the Code of Hammurabi (Mesopotamia, at the time of Avraham) it is written: "If the debt was incurred by borrowing grain or silver, one may seize as collateral: the property, servants, children, and wives, and the person himself." In other words, there were few limits to the harsh steps one could take against a hopeless debtor, in order to ensure payment. In contrast, according to the Torah, the only debtor who can be sold as a slave is a thief who does not return or pay for what he stole.
At the time of the four overlapping prophets – Hoshea, Amos, Yeshayahu, and Micha (toward the middle of the period of the kings of the First Temple) – the King of Egypt cancelled the punishment of sale of the debtor as a slave to pay the debt. However, he did not do this out of moral or compassionate concern, but based on consideration that if these people become slaves, they will not be paying taxes and will not be able to be drafted to the army. In Rome of the same time, if selling the debtor’s wife and children did not ensure the loan’s full payment, there was even a possibility to have him killed.
According to British law up to around 250 years ago, the creditor could hold the debtor in his dungeon. There were not even serious requirements for the creditor to feed him. The law states that if the debtor’s family cannot feed him sufficiently, it is fitting that he should die of famine. In contrast, our prophets and Chazal spoke strongly about the dignity due a debtor who has not paid.
Unfortunately, at times, members of our nation learned the practices of the surrounding nations rather than the laws of the Torah. Melachim II, 4:1 talks about the widow and orphans who were in debt, and the creditors came to sell the orphans as slaves. Chazal identify the creditor as King Yehoram, the son of Achav and Izevel. Yehoram was soon thereafter killed by Yehu ben Nimshi, who was coronated by the prophet Yona, who was carrying out the prophecy of Eliyahu. Chazal say that this was a punishment for his taking children as slaves without mercy (Shemot Rabba 31:4).
In these days of Elul, we should remember that Jews are required to be merciful, as many of our forebears were. At the time of Achav, Am Yisrael were victorious in battle because they were unified. May we once again excel at this and have full success in fighting our vicious enemies.
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