DEUT736 Said he [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] to them: Go out and see which is the evil way that a man should shun.… Rabbi Simeon said, One who borrows and does not repay. When someone borrows from a man, it is one in the same as borrowing from the Omnipresent God--as it is said, "The wicked borrows but does not repay, but the righteous one deals graciously and gives" (Psalms 37:21); Pirkei Avot, Perek II, mishnah 14. In a very real sense, when someone will not honor a loan, he commits a crime not only against his fellow man, but against the Almighty. For the Almighty Himself, and His Torah, enjoins us to extend a helping hand to our brother in need. "If there be among you a needy man… You shall surely lend him enough for his need, that he is lacking" [this verse]. The Almighty orders us to lend it to the needy, it is only just to regard Him, as it were, as the endorser and guarantor of every such loan, that is made in obedience to the Torah's decree. When the needy borrower will not repay a loan, he wrongs not only his creditor but also the Almighty, his Maker who is here his "co-maker." For not only will his creditor consider himself deprived by the borrower of his rightful money; the Almighty will have to reimburse the creditor, as it were, so as not to face the charge that His mitzvah has proven to be unjust.