LEV428 Separate and distinct from this mitzvah [i.e., the interest-free loan as a positive religious act in Judaism] is the negative mitzvah of not taking interest, which is repeated numerous times in the Bible. In the eyes of the halachic authorities, this repetition of the injunction against taking interest serves to compound the severity of the crime, making the participants liable on a number of different counts. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Malveh v Loveh, chapter 4, halakhot 1-2. Even the use of two different Hebrew terms, neshekh and tarbit, both to mean “interest,” is seen as reflecting the desire of the Torah to make a man liable for two transgressions from making the same single interest-bearing loan. It is interesting to see the Jewish social attitude toward interest expressed in Rashi’s comment on the use of the word neshekh (literally, a “bite”). A snake bite is at first only slightly uncomfortable, but later increases in pain and severity. So, too, interest (neshekh) is at first bearable, but as the debt mounts, the debtors suffering increases. Rashi on Exod. 22:24 From the Torah’s viewpoint, the transgression involved in making interest-bearing loans is not limited to the lender, even though he is obviously the major factor and so bears the brunt of the responsibility. Rather, all parties to the transaction are guilty of violating religious injunctions. The lender is guilty, inter alia, of putting a stumbling block in the path of the blind open (Leviticus 19:14), which the rabbinic authorities always understood as referring to giving prejudiced advice to somebody or providing him with things that are to his spiritual or physical detriment. See Rashi and Sefer HaChinukh, Mitzvah 232; Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Rotzeah u Shmirot Hanefesh, chapter 12, halakhah 14. Agents or other go-betweens in the transaction are considered to be guilty of the same crime. In keeping with Judaism’s symmetry of justice, even the borrower is not left untouched. After all, it is his need or desire for the loan which has implicated the lender in a moral crime. Even the witnesses to the transaction, as well as the guarantors of an interest-bearing loan, are considered to have violated the injunction of “you shall not take interest from him.” Without their participation, it is highly improbable that the transaction would have taken place. It is only fitting, therefore, that they share in the guilt attached to the maker of the interest-bearing loan by the Torah. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Malveh u Loveh, chapter 4, halakhah 2.