Vayikra: 5782 - When is it permitted to benefit from "interest"? Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a brief insight on Tractate Yevamos, at the conclusion of the Daf Yomi shiur of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi at Nachlah. Watch

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Zalman, please.

00:04 Speaker 2 In connection with Maseches Yevamos, which we’re learning, the Gemara in Maseches Chullin says that for everything the Torah forbade, there is something similar that the Torah permitted. Take meat and milk, for example. We’re forbidden to eat meat and milk together. But there’s the udder of a cow, which may be eaten and has the taste of meat and milk. And then, the Gemara says, there’s a fish called shibuta that tastes like pork. The Torah forbade eating pork, but there’s a fish with the same taste. So what about forbidden relationships? The Torah forbade them, but there’s something it permitted: the case of a yevamah. “Her brother-in-law shall come to her”—that’s something the Torah permitted. So people ask: What is there that resembles the prohibition of interest but is permitted? After all, you’re forbidden to charge interest: “You shall not take interest.” The permitted kind of “interest,” they say, is grandchildren. A person puts a great deal of work into raising his children, and the grandchildren are the “interest” on that investment. And that’s permitted by the Torah.

01:23 Speaker 1 Good. Your turn.