Chapter 20 of Mishlei is packed with practical warnings on matters of money, commerce, and honesty. In this lesson we will dwell on a single pasuk: the pasuk that deals with guaranteeing a loan. Shlomo HaMelech warns again and again about the danger of being a guarantor, and here he uses especially sharp language toward one who has signed as a guarantor for a person he does not know. We will study the pasuk according to Rabbeinu Yonah, the Gra, the Ralbag, and the Malbim, and we will see how each of them turns the monetary warning into a spiritual warning as well.
לְקַח־בִּגְדוֹ כִּי־עָרַב זָר וּבְעַד נׇכְרִיָּה חַבְלֵהוּ׃ (משלי כ, טז) - Take his garment, for he has become guarantor for a stranger, and for an alien woman take a pledge from him. (Mishlei 20:16)
Notice the vowelization: it does not say "לָקַח בגדו" in the past tense, but "לְקַח" with a sheva. Rabbeinu Yonah says this is a command: take his garment. And what is being discussed? A person asked you to sign as a guarantor for him: "I need to take out a large loan, I need someone to sign as a guarantor for me." You signed. Now you come to collect the money from the borrower, and he tells you he does not have it. You turn to the guarantor, and he is stunned: "What, he did not pay you? What am I supposed to do now? Where do I have it from? I need to buy an apartment...". About this Shlomo says: take his garment. Take his garment from him, without pangs of conscience.
And why without mercy? "כִּי עָרַב זָר" - because this person went and became a guarantor for a stranger, someone he does not know. Rabbeinu Yonah says: on the borrower himself one should have compassion, for the borrower is pitiful; he fell into distress, he had to close the overdraft at the bank, he had to pay so they would not throw him out of his apartment. But you, the guarantor, why did you go and sign a guarantee for a person you do not know? About this Shlomo teaches us what Chazal said: let every person be in your eyes like a robber. If so, how did you go and sign a guarantee for a robber? The problem is with you, and there is no room whatsoever to spare you or have compassion on you.
Moreover: taking the garment is not merely a lack of mercy, but a declaration that the guarantor is a wrongdoer. For why did I give the loan? I relied on you. Out of compassion for the borrower you went and brought me down, with a false claim that everything would be fine and he would repay. What did you gain from this? With the borrower it is at least understandable: he has nothing to eat, or they will throw him out of his home. But you? Therefore Shlomo says: take even his garment from him, put him through enforcement proceedings, and do not spare him and do not have mercy.
"וּבְעַד נׇכְרִיָּה חַבְלֵהוּ" - if he became a guarantor for an alien woman, take even his tent ropes from him. "חבל" means the cords with which the tent is tied, that is, the tent ropes. Dismantle his very house. And why is it more severe? Shlomo HaMelech teaches us, says Rabbeinu Yonah, that one who trusts a woman sins more than one who trusts a man, for faith and moral conduct are found in men more than in women.
And I note: Rabbeinu Yonah is correct with respect to his own era, but it seems that today reality has changed entirely. The prisons are full mainly of men, women are very few. The great frauds in the world are those of men, the Ponzi scheme, Madoff, and all the famous swindlers, schemes, and machinations are found more among men. It may be that in their time the woman would not learn anything and was not educated at all, whereas today women study and are more educated. What do I agree with? What Shlomo HaMelech himself said: "One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found."
From here we learn a practical rule: signing as a guarantor without having the sum set aside is irresponsibility and a wrong. I do not suspect you, but if in two days you do not pay for any reason whatsoever, where am I going to pay the creditor from? One who signs a guarantee and has the money set aside knows that if there is a problem, he pays. But to come and sign a guarantee just like that?
How many cases we know of, and may Hashem save us so that no one should ever know such trouble. A person signed a guarantee, and that couple got divorced, there were problems, she would not give in and he would not give in, they did not pay the mortgage, they seized the house, and afterward they turned to the guarantor. Once the bank barely took interest in the borrowers and went straight to the guarantor (today, thank God, they changed the law). There were cases where people lost their homes, cases where as a result of this they reached divorce, heart attacks, and problems, and people were utterly broken. A person worked for twenty years, reached something, and lost everything in a single moment because of the foolishness of signing a guarantee for a wayward brother or a cousin who is not settled in his mind. "Do not worry, it will be fine." And we have seen how many times Shlomo warns: do not sign a guarantee! Say, "My father made me swear, saying: I do not sign guarantees." Signing as a guarantor is a very great danger.
The Gra explains the pasuk according to halacha. It is written that a creditor may not enter the home of the borrower to take a security deposit from him: "you shall stand outside." Why? Because when you enter his home you treat him as a master treats a servant: since twenty thousand shekels of yours are with me, you already feel that you own me, you walk in without knocking and take. That is not the way. Stand outside, and he will bring the security out to you. Is it not enough that the person is in need, that you must also treat him with domination and condescension and enter his home as though you owned it?
And this is what the pasuk says: "take his garment" - but how? From outside, for we are speaking of one who "guaranteed a stranger." But by contrast, "and hold him in pledge for the foreign woman" - a foreigner is more distant than a stranger, and there the pasuk tells you to enter his home and take the pledge. Says the Gaon of Vilna: the entire warning to stand outside and not to seize the pledge was said regarding the borrower, but regarding the guarantor there is no prohibition against approaching him and taking his garment even inside his home. The borrower did not pay, there is a guarantor - you are permitted to enter the guarantor's home and collect from him.
All these matters, says the Gra, are a symbol for matters of Torah and mitzvos. He already explained above that the matter of the guarantee in these pesukim is in the sense of "all of Israel are guarantors for one another." There is a person who has a responsibility toward his household, one who has a responsibility toward his audience, and one who has a responsibility toward his community. Every person has a guarantee toward the people who receive from him and whom he can influence, and this is in addition to the mutual responsibility of all of Israel: that if I can see to it that you put on tefillin, I have a mitzvah to rebuke you and to bring you to do so. We are not entering here into the laws of rebuke, when one is obligated and when not, but this is the basic meaning of a guarantee: you did not pay, so I need to help you pay, and if not, they will collect from me in your place.
Says the Gra: when you are supposed to perform an action - to influence the members of your community and those who hear your teaching to learn, to keep mitzvos, to do the will of Hashem - and you do not perform it, from whom will they demand it? From the guarantor, that is, from you, who were supposed to do the action. You were supposed to demand of them and to rebuke them, and instead you always told them how good they are, how wonderful they are, and how special they are.
There are rabbis who speak only of love of Israel: "all of them are Your people, all are righteous, all are holy, all are pure," and if one mentions that there are also problems, "one may not accuse." He always has only good things to say, so that they will love him, so that they will invite him to more weddings and more conventions. This is a "comfortable rabbi," user-friendly and easy to use: whatever you want, he will find it for you and permit it for you. And where does he know it from? "Rabbi Google." Someone told me this explicitly, that she asked Google and received a ruling. I said to her: who is this rabbi? These are tall tales, they are feeding you nonsense.
And to say "do not accuse" is foolishness and emptiness. I am not discussing here the benefit of the matter, when one must speak and how, but see how the prophet Yeshaya rebukes the members of his community: "Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and pursues rewards." This language of rebuke sounds as if it were written about one who keeps hidden funds without precise record of where the money goes, until the headlines announce "we found where the money is."
As for our matter: a person must know that if he bears responsibility, his task is to see to it that those people walk in the way of Hashem. If there is a need to rebuke, he should rebuke. Let him see how to rebuke, certainly not in a personal way but in a more general way, but it is certain that he has a guarantee toward those people.
Says the Gra: if he does not perform this action, he causes damage to himself - the good character traits within him and the good things he has will be taken from him. He may indeed claim, "I am fine, what do I care," but they tell him: no, sir. The Holy One, blessed be He, granted you power in order that you influence others, and if you do not influence them, what you received will be taken from you.
The Gra explains that there are two bad traits within a person: taavah (desire) and chemdah (craving). Desire is that a person always longs to indulge his body: the desire for food, the desire for intimacy, to sit at home and rest. And craving is the endless pursuit: I want this and also that, and he runs constantly after achievement, another job and another venture, in order to attain more and more. Opposite these are two good traits, one from within and one from without: the good trait from within is between man and Hashem, and the good trait from without is between man and his fellow, how he conducts himself outwardly with others.
And the character traits are called garments, as it says "and the kohen shall put on his linen garment," and Chazal expounded "his garment (mido)" as meaning "according to his measure (midaso)." And we too speak this way: "madim" - the soldier's uniform, the waiter's uniform - a garment (levush) from the term for character traits (midos). A person's garment is his character traits.
If so, a person who was supposed to rebuke and did not rebuke - "take his garment": from Heaven they take his garment, which represents the good character traits between man and his fellow, traits that are "on the outside," as it is stated in halacha "you shall stand outside." "כִּי עָרַב זָר" - this person served as a guarantor toward other people and did not fulfill his role, but instead chased after comfort: "Let me rest, I do not want to run and rebuke and demand things of people and give a shiur." You are able to act, so why not get up and do it? In response to the pursuit of the comfort that is on the outside, the good trait between man and his fellow is taken from him.
And whoever served as a guarantor "בְעַד נׇכְרִיָּה" - the foreign woman always symbolizes desire, as we have seen "for a foreign woman," "for a loaf of bread," and the like. And since he went after his desire and sought quiet and rest for himself, or pursuit of money, and did not seek how to rebuke others - "חַבְלֵהוּ": this refers to the inner traits, those between man and God, which are damaged by his corrupt deeds. To summarize the words of the Gra: when a person has a role to fulfill and does not fulfill it, from Heaven they take from him the very tools that were supposed to help him fulfill the role, for you did not act with what God gave you.
The Ralbag explains, as is his way, that this refers to a person who is drawn after physical desires instead of engaging in spirituality. Who is the "guarantor"? The intellect. It is the one who serves as guarantor for the stranger and for the foreign woman. And who are the stranger and the foreign woman? The desires, the physical pleasures, the attraction to what is sweet and pleasant. And why is it called "stranger"? Because it is foreign to the person and to his role in the world. This is the evil inclination, which is foreign to him. Who is the person really? The holy soul, whose source is in the treasuries of Heaven. And how did such a stranger come to be within us? What can we do, since Adam and Chava sinned, and as a result good became mixed with evil, and the serpent entered and the power of evil came inward into the person.
The intellect was supposed to be the judge. The stranger has desires - he wants this, he has such a craving, to fulfill his will, to cause harm here and to steal there - and the intellect must rule: no, this is forbidden; no, this is not moral; this action will only harm you. But in practice the intellect pledges itself for the stranger: when a person goes after desire, the intellect comes and says "Listen, it is not entirely clear that this is forbidden, there are also authorities who permit it, and in general even in Tanach you see things..." Instead of being the judge and being "restraining my people," the intellect becomes the lawyer of the stranger and the foreign woman: he issues after-the-fact explanations for why one should do it, why it is not so terrible, and why it is fine. This is "עָרַב זָר" - he becomes the guarantor, the one who is supposed to pay and provide justifications for the acts of desire.
And in the end, who pays the price? It is the intellect that receives the punishment. And this can be explained in two senses. The first - in the World to Come. There, in Gan Eden and Gehinnom, there are no desires and no pleasures and no physicality and no body. What remains? The active intellect, the soul. And then it says: what a fool I was, why was I drawn, why did I listen to the body, why did I become the defense attorney and lawyer of the body instead of being the judge and preventing it from going after its desires? Suddenly it sees that "take his garment" - all the merits it thought it had are taken from it, and it receives its punishment.
The second possibility - that the desires harm him already here in this world, and there are things in which this can be clearly seen. One who is drawn after the desire for smoking, God forbid that anything bad should happen to anyone, but it is quite possible that he himself will have to experience the images and warnings he sees on the cigarette packs. And then you will regret that the intellect, instead of granting legitimacy to good and rejecting evil, became the defense attorney of evil: "Listen, it is only a little, just a bit after the meal." And what came out of that "little bit"? Today he smokes two packs a day. And can you know where you will be drawn and where you will end up?
I once read a survey that very few people managed to keep smoking to a small and limited amount. Many say "I cannot do without cigarettes, but I will only have one after the meal, only on special occasions, only when I am with the guys." And the reality - and I am not saying everyone - is that the overwhelming majority did not manage to hold the line; little by little they increased and returned to their previous state or even worse, until they became chronic smokers, for even if he started with a little, it already became second nature to him. (And besides this, they found that even a single cigarette is harmful, but let us set that aside.)
In any case, a stage will come when the person will say: what a fool I was, why was I drawn after the pleasures and desires, see how much harm this causes me and how much sorrow it brings me. "Take his garment for he has become guarantor for a stranger" - you, the intellect, went to be a guarantor for whom? For the desires and pleasures. Afterward they will take the garment from you, and afterward "חַבְלֵהוּ" - following what? Following that you served as guarantor for a foreign woman, that you went after her physical desires, and its end is regret and sorrow.
The Malbim emphasizes that in the holy tongue there is a difference between "stranger" (zar) and "foreigner" (nochri). A stranger can even be local, from here, except that he is not a member of my household - "do not open the door to strangers." A foreigner, by contrast, is estranged, coming from a distant place and a distant land. And so David HaMelech says: "מוּזָר הָיִיתִי לְאֶחָי וְנׇכְרִי לִבְנֵי אִמִּי" - to my brothers I was a stranger, and to the sons of my mother I was already a complete foreigner, like a person who came from a distant land.
And according to this, on the plain level: if a person served as guarantor for a stranger - take his garment, but do not harm him physically. And if he served as guarantor for a foreign harlot woman - "חַבְלֵהוּ," injure him, for he is already called an actual criminal.
And what is the analogy? We saw above that the harlot woman is called a foreign woman (nochriyah), as it is written, "To keep you from the strange woman, from the foreign woman who smooths her speech." And Shlomo is not coming to speak about such trivial matters; he is speaking about false beliefs. We already explained that false beliefs are in the category of "her speech she smooths," as they said, "the heresy of it draws" - words of heresy and denial draw a person in, they interest and intrigue him, and he is pulled after them. And as the Vilna Gaon wrote about the Rambam, who wrote several things that seemingly do not accord with the view of Chazal regarding the existence of demons and the like, and the Vilna Gaon wrote about him that "the accursed philosophy led him astray with the abundance of its teaching" - as it were, he was drawn after the matters of philosophy that he engaged in, Aristotle and those like him, and this is like a strange woman who draws away a person's heart.
If so, here the discussion is about false beliefs and about the corrupted views of idol worshippers. One who holds by wisdoms that are not like the wisdom of the Torah - false wisdoms, yet still not idolatry, still not things that are utterly remote - this is a strange woman, not a foreign woman. What is the definition of "strange"? That his outlook is not entirely clear: it is not completely clear to him that one must walk in the way of the Torah, but idolatry, Heaven forbid, would never enter his mind. His outlook is strange, but not foreign. But "foreign" is in the category of a harlot, and a harlot means one who has strayed from the path, as in "And you shall not stray after your hearts and after your eyes, after which you go astray" - he has strayed from the path entirely.
Therefore one who guarantees for a stranger - "take his garment." And what is the garment? The people of Israel at Mount Sinai merited precious clothing, they merited an "adornment," and when they sinned the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "Remove your adornment from upon you." If your outlook begins to become slightly corrupted, you have lost the precious adornment - that correct, pure, and true outlook that we received at Mount Sinai, that there is none besides Him and that there is nothing like the holy Torah. And suddenly one hears from him other tunes: "Yes, Torah, it's all well and good, but one also needs other things, and a person also needs to live, and a person also needs to enjoy himself." This person has lost the holy and pure garments, the adornment that was given to him at Mount Sinai.
But one who guarantees for a foreign woman - "What Torah, what mitzvot, what are these things? There are other beliefs, I was actually once in a church..." - this one has already sailed off and reached idolatry. About him it is said "take a pledge from him" (chavlehu): this person is like one who has been wounded and cut off and severed from the congregation of Hashem, as if he cut the branch that connects him to the whole of the people of Israel, and he is entirely distant from any reality of holiness. But one who is still on the right line, except that he has deviations and corruptions of view, has only lost the special garments, and has not yet reached complete severance and has not been cut off from his holy root.
One verse, and four levels of explanation. In the plain meaning - a sharp warning against signing a guarantee: the borrower is pitied, the negligent guarantor who relied on a stranger is not pitied, and in practice it is better not to sign a guarantee at all, for this has destroyed homes and families. In halachah - toward the borrower "you shall stand outside," and toward the guarantor one is permitted to enter. In the way of the Vilna Gaon - every person is a guarantor toward those influenced by him, and if he does not rebuke and does not influence, the good traits between man and his fellow are taken from him, and the traits between man and God are wounded. In the way of the Ralbag - the intellect that becomes a defense attorney for desire instead of a judge over it is the one that will pay the price and regret it. And in the way of the Malbim - one whose outlook begins to become corrupted loses the adornment of Mount Sinai, and one who sails off all the way to idolatry is severed from his root. In all these facets the idea is one: whoever guarantees is responsible, and whoever abandons his responsibility, whether in money or in spirit, will find himself in the end without the garment he once had.