Is Predatory Lending Kosher?

the god of money the god of gold of you know the idolatry is very strong in the world and unfortunately people are falling for it and I don't mean just the crowd I mean even people that are in essence rabbis how could it be perhaps the answer to that has to do with the other big issue that we've brought to light over the last several years and have sacrificed Our Lives over is the whole issue of the illegality uh of the cash advance business the merchant cash advance business a corrupt horrific business that is a predatory business that preys on its own customers so much so that we have a history that is documented and Hashem when the chuva comes out that is actually already ready now if I'm already completed it the chuva that's going to come out the responsa that shows according to all opinions there is no permission whatsoever to be involved in cash advance but yet whenever I mention the issues of cash advance being not allowed surely there are some people that say no but my Rabbi said it is allowed and if you just befriend and talk and consult a a Thomas surely you can stay in this business you can make a living an honest living honest living destroying people's lives by charging them forty percent eighty percent a hundred percent four hundred percent interest rates that's an honest leaving so of course people are going to lie to themselves that this is an honest living but the truth be told every single person that Bo Hashem we had the Seattle to really talk truth to that we were able to succeed in getting them out of that business told me at some point or another they always knew that the business was corrupt but the money was too good in order to see straight so now that answers the question of why the people that are in the cash advance business are having a hard time accepting the truth that it's a corrupt business even though they don't need to see my shirim to know that it is a corrupt business everybody knows it even if you've never seen my shurini to be we've never seen anything that I've ever said you're in that business by default it's only a matter of time before you know that it's a corrupt business that preys on its own customers but you have a hard time leaving because of the money so that answers the question of why they have a hard time the question is why did the rabbis that are saying you're allowed to be in this business for all the people that are in essence asking for a rabbinical opinion how come they're uh they're allowing such a thing well there are all types of arguments we can uh assume we were never gonna know until we know for sure when people actually tell us but the one thing I could tell you for sure that to all of us not just them but also us is Shabbat says a person does not see the deficiency in themselves many times a person is involved in a certain particular situation or has a certain particular character trait a certain particular issue that's relevant to him and he can see that flaw in everybody else except in himself and many times when it comes to din Torah it comes to the laws of the Torah itself a person could easily see that someone else is desecrating the Torah is going against the Torah is violating it Torah whichever way you want to put it it's going against the Torah while he himself is violating it but he doesn't realize it why because it's easy to see it in everybody else now of course uh brings the whole issue of lending money lending money with interest of course it's the Torah tells us that we're not a Jew is not allowed to lend money to another Jew with interest so much so that if a Jew lends another Jew money with interest everybody that's involved has no share of the world to come and everyone knows that watches my lecture no share of the world to come doesn't mean that everything goes blank like a TV in the 1980s as soon as the programming was finished you just have these little uh white dots on the screen you know today Hashem the the Satan is a is much stronger so he allows the uh the TV to continue even further than 24 hours a day but that's also good for us because that allows us to have also the uh Torah uh 24 hours a day so the key is to know that the The yetzera Works overtime yeah so it works over time and the Torah tells us that every single person that's involved in this lending has no share of the world to come and what no world of the co uh no share in the world to come means is this person goes to genome and doesn't end and if it's not gay Norm it's Cafe killer because he has to have a certain amount of merits to be in genome and of course for those of you that uh you know listen to the people that say oh but it's limited it's only one year there's no forever then you have to explain coming up on it soon if you look at the midras and parashat you look at anyone who talks about you see that KOA has stolen gain on until this year and apparently a little more than a year has passed since KOA has entered genome with all of his followers needless to say that these are says specifically that there is a no end to the specific sentences especially since the uh the time in kafakella also has no limitation where a person can go there for five years for 10 years for a thousand years and this is actually the language of the Ariza needless to say the people that are involved in lending money from Jew to Jew have a very serious problem and it's not just the lender and it's not just the borrower it's also the guy the secretary that's uh providing the paperwork it's the guy that's collecting the money and so on and so forth all of those people are in very very serious trouble but that's obvious if you ask anybody that's religious doesn't even need to rear Rabbi you're asking am I allowed to lend another Jew money in charge of Interest they're all gonna tell you no but if you ask people am I allowed to charge a non-jew interest you're gonna have some mixed opinions and in fact most of the time you're going to see an opinion depending on how close these people are to the cash advance business reason why because this is where the etsara is much stronger specifically says that there are there the have an argument a whole debate about whether you're allowed to charge the non-jews interest or not whether you're allowed you're not allowed already saw that there's problems with this in his day he made a takana that not allowed to charge interest anybody not Jews and not non-jews because he saw how much of a desecration of God's name this whole business is and how corrupt the business is all together already three thousand plus years ago now go back and forth and what do they end up with you're going to end up with a couple of a couple of opinions couple of opinions one opinion that the son of abhuna says that is referring to a uh uh uh uh bottom line conclusion which is if the person is only going to lend money just enough to make a living make a living in the in the uh in the language of a Torah means just enough to literally live not to live in a you know 18 bedroom mansion drive a uh 250 000 car and have fifty thousand dollars on your left wrist no no just to make a living meaning as soon as you make a deal just to make enough money to pay rent or mortgage or whatever it is to eat for that month you're finished you're not allowed to work anymore that's one condition that it's allowed to lend money to to a non-jew in charge of Interest second condition that you actually even allowed to become rich off of it is if you're Atomic meaning there's no limitation since you are told you have limited amount of time that you're working because most of the time you are learning Torah and that Torah also protects you from being influenced by these non-jews that are going to constantly come to you asking you for money and then to lend you money which we're not going to get into and who and what and where point being is if you're Tony then you're allowed to charge interest with no problem no problem also say something else they also say something else that even if he chooses to lend money to a gentile interest and to a Jew interest-free the Jew takes precedence there's another opinion it says technically you're allowed to lend money to the uh to the non-jew but make sure you always lend to the Jew first so as long as you lend to the Jews first then you can lend to the nanju so now this is now not by uh uh by the same RAV this is the other opinion page 71a so now they're going to tell you see we have a proof of nachman said that he didn't give any boundaries he didn't say that you're allowed to only charge this and only do this and oh no he just said as long as you give to the Jews too without charging them any interest eucalented the non-jews as much as you want you're right that's what says but why why do we have a problem with it because that's not what was passed again with the rambam with all of the kakamim that have went through this extensively what we said first which is either the person has to only do it necessary for his livelihood just enough to make a living or if a person is said point being is that unless a person is or unless a person literally makes one deal a month he's not going to be able to survive being in that uh permissible to be in that cash advance business so the question is since this is so obvious or it should be so obvious how come it's so hard for people that are even dianeem even people that are smart people that are involved in this I'm not talking about the people that I've never heard of this I'm not talking about the people that have no idea that this is even happening under their nose I'm talking about people that are actually Consulting and counseling the people that are in the cash advance Business from The Ashkenazi Community from the Safari Community the hasidis community all the different communities how come there how come nobody is like screaming fell over this perhaps at the very least we could all say a person does not see the obligation himself now you would think this only has to do with them but the truth be told this has nothing to do with them this has to do with all of us because we all have the same exact problem how do we have the same exact problem well let's see where the hazonish is going to take us today and identify the very same exact problem in us because it's easy for us to talk about the problems of everybody else they're wearing wigs they're charging interest they're doing things that are going to cost very easy to do that over and over again but let's just see if we could do some introspection perhaps arrive at a similar similar conclusion with ourselves that we we too have some work to do with us [Music] let me know uh what you think and make sure to share it because other people need to learn to