There are some people who refrain from this mitzvah of giving loans to their fellows because they think that it is only a morally correct thing to do or that is a “nice” trait, but they do not realize that it is a positive commandment of the Torah, on par with such mitzvos as Lulav, Shofar and laying Tefillin. Let the person, instead, think about how full of joy he is when he gets to keep the mitzvos of Lulav and Sukkah; he is not the least bit upset about the fact that he will have to spend money performing them. On the contrary, he is happy that he has the opportunity to keep them. But when it comes to the mitzvos of doing acts of kindness or lending money, which are mitzvos that are so easy to keep, the person sometimes turns away just because of some small inconvenience. And even when people do it, it is often with a feeling of resistance and without any joy.

For example, when a person meets another fellow in the street and the man asks for a small loan, the person turns the man away with various excuses, such as that he doesn’t have any money on him and he is too lazy to go back to his house, or he say, “I don’t have any change and I do not want to break the large bill,” or he sends the fellow off to “Go to so-and-so; he’ll definitely be able to give you a loan.” There are more such excuses.

And even if the fellow pleads with the person until he does return to his home or to make change out of the large bill, he does so with annoyance and without any joy at all. But let the person think about this: If his friend would meet him in the market and offer him a fabulous  business opportunity from which he will earn great profit, would he be too lazy to go home to get the money or would he hesitate to exchange the bill into smaller units? Or would he tell his friend, “Go to so-and-so; he will surely want to do business with you”? Is it not obvious that he would rush home and would not act with the slightest bit of laziness in order to turn a great profit from the deal? He certainly would not give away his business opportunity to someone else.

All the more so when someone comes to a person with an opportunity to fulfill this mitzvah of Gemilus Chasadim, one should be extremely happy that such a great “deal” came his way to keep a positive commandment of the Torah, for which there is no limit to its reward.