✦ ❖ ✦ D A A T · L E V E L 3 — S Y N T H E S I S / R E V I E W ✦ ❖ ✦
Siman 163 — Converting a debt into wheat at today’s rate
דין הפוסק חיטין לחייבו כשער של עכשיו
Three seifim: the money debt converted into a debt in kind, the condition of the full measure, the repeated conversion, and the ninety-for-a-hundred device
Structured review, ruling tables, quick memorisation
Source: Shulchan Aroukh, Yoreh De'ah קס״ג — 3 seifim
Nosei kelim: ש״ך (11 ס״ק) · ט״ז (7 ס״ק) · באר היטב (6 ס״ק) · פתחי תשובה (2 ס״ק) · נקודות הכסף (1) · בית יוסף · טור
Compiled by: הרב יוסף חיים סממה · DAAT
For students who have mastered Levels 1 and 2
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📑 Plan of the synthesis
- The axiom: what follows a money loan bears its mark
- The 3 reflex questions
- Master table — the three seifim clause by clause
- The comparative table — siman 162 against siman 163
- יש לו כשיעור מעותיו — what counts and what does not
- When it is no longer a loan — the Shach’s boundary
- הערמת רבית — the shape, and its way out
- The degree: three positions and a conclusion
- The vocabulary of the siman
- Golden rules, mnemonic, traps and flash card
1. The axiom: what follows a money loan bears its mark
The starting point:
At siman 162 wheat is lent and one asks: did the borrower have any? Here money is owed, and that debt is converted into wheat. The question is the same — but the answer hardens on three points, and for one reason: the money went first.
A money loan already made is a fact nothing erases. Everything that comes after bears its mark, and it is that mark siman 163 measures.
The two clauses that carry the whole siman:
💡 The marker: the word of the siman is not שער but כשיעור.
2. The 3 reflex questions
1. Where did the money come from? It was lent — we are in our siman, and the rule is strict. It was given for the goods — it is no longer a loan, and a market rate suffices (Shach ס״ק ד).
▼
2. Does he have the goods, now, for the full amount? Yes — permitted, even without a rate. No — forbidden, even with one. Money does not replace the goods.
▼
3. Does the arrangement come to returning more than was received? If the chain of acts ends in a hundred against ninety, it is a הערמת רבית — even if each act, taken alone, is lawful.
3. Master table — the three seifim clause by clause
| Seif | The clause | What follows |
|---|
| 1 |
« מי שהיה נושה בחבירו מעות ואמר לו תן לי מעותי שאני רוצה ליקח בהם חטים א״ל צא ועשה אותם עלי כשער של עכשיו ויהיה לך אצלי חטים בהלוואה » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:א) |
The operation: a money claim becomes a wheat claim |
| 1 |
« אם יש לו חטים כשיעור מעותיו מותר אפי׳ לא יצא השער ואם לאו אסור אפי׳ יצא השער » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:א) |
The rule: full goods suffice without a rate; no rate makes up for their absence |
| 1 |
« ונאמן המוכר לומר שיש לו וא״צ ראייה לדבריו » (רמ״א יו״ד קס״ג:א) |
The debtor’s word suffices: he need not prove it |
| 2 |
« הרי שהיה לו חטים ועשה הלואתו עליו ובא אחר זמן ואמר ליה תן לי חטים שאני רוצה למכרם וליקח בדמיהם יין » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ב) |
The situation: the conversion repeats, from wheat to wine |
| 2 |
« א״ל צא ועשה אותם עלי יין כשער שבשוק עתה אם יש לו יין הרי זה מותר ואם לאו אסור » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ב) |
The rule does not shift an inch |
| 3 |
« אמר לו הלויני מנה א״ל מנה אין לי חטים במנה יש לי ונתן לו חטים במנה כמו שהוא השער וחזר ולקחם ממנו בצ » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
The device: wheat at a hundred, bought back at ninety |
| 3 |
« אם פרע לו לבסוף המנה בפירות מותר אבל אסור לפרוע במעות מפני הערמת רבית מאחר שא״ל תחלה הלויני מנה » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
Paying in produce: permitted; in money: forbidden — הערמת רבית |
| 3 |
« ואם עבר ועשה הרי הוא מוציא ממנו ק׳ בדין שאפי׳ אבק רבית אין כאן » (שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
If he transgressed: the creditor keeps the hundred |
| 3 |
« וי״א דהוי אבק רבית » (רמ״א יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
And some say there is indeed avak ribbit |
| 3 |
« וכל זה לא מיירי אלא כשלא התנו מתחילה על כך אבל אם התנו מתחילה לקנות ממנו בפחות הוי רבית גמור » (רמ״א יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
Stipulated in advance: characterised interest |
| 3 |
« אפילו פרע לו פירות [אסור » (רמ״א יו״ד קס״ג:ג) |
And then, even payment in produce saves nothing |
4. The comparative table — siman 162 against siman 163
| The question | Siman 162 — the commodity is lent | Siman 163 — money was lent |
|---|
| What is the nature of the operation? | A loan | A sale, from which a debt is born |
| How much must he own? | A drop | The full measure |
| Does the base grow with the operation? | Yes — it rolls | No — a sale does not roll |
| Does a market rate suffice? | Yes | No |
| Must the borrower have money? | No — Shach 162 ס״ק י | Money does not replace the goods — Shach 163 ס״ק א |
| The reason of the permission | The commodity he has is made over to the lender | The creditor acquires the commodity from now — זכי ביה מהשתא |
One thing has changed, and it changes everything. In siman 162 what moves first is the commodity; here it is the money. The Rosh says it in one line, which the Taz reports: there he lent him produce and it does not look like interest; here he lent him money first.
5. יש לו כשיעור מעותיו — what counts and what does not
| What the debtor holds | Counts? | Source |
|---|
| The commodity, for the full amount of the debt | Yes | שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:א |
| The commodity, but less than the amount | For the excess, no | ש״ך יו״ד קס״ג ס״ק ב |
| Money, enough to buy the whole commodity | No — the Taz discusses it, without practical effect | ש״ך יו״ד קס״ג ס״ק א · ט״ז יו״ד קס״ג ס״ק ד |
| He says he has some | He is believed | רמ״א יו״ד קס״ג:א |
| Neither commodity nor money | Forbidden on all views | שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:א |
| He has wine, for the second conversion | Yes | שו״ע יו״ד קס״ג:ב |
The reason of the permission, and the reason of its limit:
The trap of the siman: thinking that what sufficed at siman 162 suffices here. A drop does not suffice; a market rate does not suffice; money does not suffice in practice. The commodity is needed, and for the full amount.
6. When it is no longer a loan — the Shach’s boundary
The Shach, at ס״ק ד, draws the boundary in two sentences that run opposite ways. It separates two operations economically close and halakhically opposed.
| The operation | The ruling | Why |
|---|
| Money is given today for a delivery at today’s rate | Permitted once a rate exists, even with no goods | It is not a loan — it is a price paid in advance |
| Money is lent, with a clause of payment in kind on default | Forbidden | כיון דמחמת הלואה קאתי |
The practical rule in one line: what decides is not the economic outcome but the first act. Money given for goods opens a door; the same money lent closes it.
7. הערמת רבית — the shape, and its way out
Step 1. “Lend me a maneh.” — “A maneh I have not; wheat worth a maneh I have.” He gives him the wheat at the rate. Lawful.
▼
Step 2. He buys it back for ninety, while it is still worth a hundred. Lawful — one may buy below the price.
▼
The outcome. He received ninety and will owe a hundred. Forbidden — מפני הערמת רבית, and because he first said “lend me a maneh”.
▼
The way out. If he finally pays in wheat, there is no shape at all: the creditor took goods, not money. Permitted.
Three specifications that change the verdict. If the wheat was never worth more than ninety: it is no longer a device but characterised interest (Taz ס״ק ו). If the wheat fell before the buy-back: there is nothing at all, not even a device (Shach ס״ק ז). And if the wheat was not genuinely acquired — neither drawn nor acquired by a valid kinyan — the shape of interest remains in any case (Shach ס״ק ו).
8. The degree: three positions and a conclusion
| Who | The degree | What the court does |
|---|
| The Rambam, and the Mehaber after him | Neither interest nor even avak ribbit | The creditor recovers the hundred |
| The Ramban and the Rosh, reported by the Tur and the gloss | avak ribbit | Nothing moves, in either direction |
| The Beit Yosef, concluding his commentary | Like the Rambam, since the Rashba agrees with him | הכי נקטינן |
| The Bach, on the case where it was stipulated in advance | A likeness of characterised interest, not characterised interest | The nuance decides what is recoverable |
What depends on none of these positions: the debtor may always pay in wheat, and no one may compel him. The Shach (ס״ק י) says so even on the stringent view — since compelling him would be a way of extracting what one has no right to take.
9. The vocabulary of the siman
| Term | Meaning | Where it operates |
|---|
| פוסק על שער שבשוק | agreeing today on a future delivery at today’s price | the whole siman; in its own right at siman 175 |
| יצא השער | the commodity has a public market rate | seif 1 — and it does not suffice |
| יש לו כשיעור מעותיו | he owns the commodity for the full amount of the debt | seif 1 — the sole condition |
| מעמידין מלוה על גבי פירות | a debt is stood upon produce | the very principle of seif 1 |
| זקפן עליו במלוה | converting the price of the commodity into a money debt | the limit of seif 2 |
| מה לי הן מה לי דמיהן | a thing and its price are interchangeable | seif 2, and the Shach’s ס״ק ח |
| מי שפרע | the ritual sanction on one who retracts from an unperfected sale | Rashi’s reason, Shach ס״ק ג |
| הערמת רבית | an arrangement lawful step by step and forbidden as a whole | seif 3 |
| אבק רבית | rabbinic interest, not recoverable at law | the dispute of seif 3 |
| רבית גמור | characterised interest, which the court makes one return | the gloss to seif 3, where it was stipulated in advance |
10. Golden rules, mnemonic, traps and flash card
Five golden rules
- A money debt is converted into a debt in kind only if the debtor has the commodity, for the full amount.
- If he has it, no rate is required; if he has not, no rate makes up for it.
- Money given for goods is not a loan; money lent remains one, whatever clause follows.
- An arrangement is judged by its shape, not by its steps. A hundred against ninety remains a hundred against ninety.
- Payment in goods is always open to the debtor, and never imposable on him.
Mnemonic — whence, how much, what shape. Whence the money (lent or given) · how much goods (the full measure) · what shape the whole has (a hundred for ninety?). Three questions, and the siman is read.
The classic traps
- Transposing the mechanism of siman 162 here. A drop does not suffice, a rate does not suffice — the Shach (ס״ק ב) and the Taz (ס״ק ב) both say so.
- Relying on the Taz’s position at ס״ק ד to be lenient. He wrote it להלכה ולא למעשה, and the Baer Hetev records it.
- Thinking a suspensive clause changes the nature of a loan. The Shach (ס״ק ד) rejects it: כיון דמחמת הלואה קאתי.
- Thinking an interval erases the shape of seif 3. That is the Taz’s position (ס״ק ז); the Nekudot HaKesef refuse it and the Baer Hetev reports it.
- Forgetting that the conversion of seif 3 must be a real acquisition: the Shach (ס״ק ו) requires meshikha or a valid kinyan.
Flash card. תן לי מעותי → צא ועשה אותם עלי כשער של עכשיו → אם יש לו חטים כשיעור מעותיו מותר → אפי׳ לא יצא השער → ואם לאו אסור אפי׳ יצא השער → מעמידין מלוה על גבי פירות → הלויני מנה → הערמת רבית → התנו מתחילה — רבית גמור.
🎓 Recap of the study path