Originally posted by @Abraham Kaplan:
In my google search I did see where this has not been held up in court before. But it just seemed strange to make it page 130 of my closing documents. I live in Roswell NM. The properties are in Corpus Christi TX. Their loan officer is at a DFW office. And their corporate office is in Florida. Based on that why did they think that agreement was needed? There are many situations where everyone says you should not mix with religion or politics. I think closing documents is one of them. I might be making too big of a deal but I don't think I'll be working with this lender again.
@Abraham Kaplan, I wouldnt make to much of it. This is one of those cases where ancient religious law collides with modern day facts of life ,and as a result religious law makers find elaborate loopholes to bridge the contradiction. The same prohibition exists in Muslim law between Muslims and in medieval Christian law between Christians. (Both finding thier source in the Jewish Canon.) This is the reason many medieval jewish tradesmen found thier living as money lenders financing non-jewish nobles and clergy who were not allowed to practice usury amongst themselves.
Banks in Israel build this kind of thing into all loan agreements in order to satisfy religious political elements and not forego entire swaths of potential customers. This is the same reason nearly 100% of supermarkets and hotels in Israel adhere to kosher dietary religious laws.
The lender is obviously an observant Jew, and this has become an issue for him only because you as the borrower are Jewish too. They should have brought it up sooner and not at closing, but I doubt it has any real significance from a legal standpoint.
At the end of the day, calling "interest" payments "profits" is a matter of semantics.
