Is It Permitted to Lend with Interest to a Jew Who Desecrates Shabbat?

Hello, 

The view of the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah (siman 159, section 2) is that it is permitted to lend with interest to an apostate. Based on this, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt"l ruled in Yabia Omer, volume 9 (Yoreh Deah, siman 9) and in his work Halichot Olam, volume 8 (page 6) that one who desecrates Shabbat in public, whether defiantly or out of desire, may be lent to with interest, as it says regarding the prohibition of interest (Vayikra 25:36), "and your brother shall live with you"; this excludes one who is not your brother in mitzvot. However, the Rema (there, section 3) states that it is forbidden to lend with interest to the son of an apostate mother, because he is like a child captured among the gentiles. The Shach (sk. 8) explains that even according to one who permits lending with interest to an apostate, this applies only to the apostate himself, who knows his Master and intends to rebel against Him; but one who grew up among the gentiles is considered inadvertent. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav added that even though he later heard that he is a Jew and saw the Jews and their religion, he is considered coerced, since he grew up among non-Jews in their religion. Accordingly, the work Divrei Sofrim on the laws of interest (siman 159, section 3, in Beur Halacha, s.v. dehavi) wrote that the secular Jews of our time seem to be regarded as children who were taken captive, and it would be forbidden to lend them money with interest. So it is written there. However, if one is dealing with a person who grew up on the knees of Torah and mitzvot and later abandoned them, then where there is a need there is room to be lenient and lend him money with interest (see Brity Shalom, volume 3, siman 6). It should also be known that even in the case of one who "studied and then departed," the entire allowance is only to lend him money with interest; however, it is forbidden to borrow from him with interest, as is written in the Shulchan Aruch there (section 2). This was also stated in Yabia Omer, volume 5 (Yoreh Deah, siman 13). 

With blessing, 

Hillel Meirs