DEUT1283 People sometimes note that Torah law permitted Israelites to charge interest on loans to non-Israelites, but not to fellow Israelites [this and following verse], and that despite [French rabbi Menachem] Meiri [(1249-ca. 1310)]'s ruling [that all discriminatory legislation in the Talmud applied only to ancient pagans and idolaters who rejected the moral teachings of the Bible, and the belief in one God], Jewish law still permitted them to do so. However, this is not an example of discriminatory legislation. The reasoning of Jewish law can be described as follows: Since non-Israelites charged interest on loans to Israelites, and everybody else, and still do, Israelites were and are permitted to charge interest to non-Israelites. The regulation against charging interest to fellow Israelites was a special provision, a sort of family solidarity with our coreligionists (just as we can imagine a family patriarch or matriarch instructing his/her children and descendants not to charge interest on a loan to a close relative, particularly if the loan is made to cover urgent, personal expenses).