13. If someone has a certain sum available to lend, and several people come at once asking for a loan – it is better that he give each one of them a small loan rather than give a large loan to only one of them. This is so because one fulfills a positive commandment of the Torah for each loan executed and it is preferable to fulfill many mitzvosthan only one.
However, if, by giving the loan to the person who requested the large sum, [the lender] can forestall the complete financial collapse of the borrower, then perhaps that one borrower does have precedence before the others, since by giving him the loan, the lender fulfills an additional positive mitzvah – that of When your brother becomes impoverished… help him survive, (Vayikra 25:35).
