I live in Israel and purchased for an individual an airline ticket to the United States of a sum of 4000 shekel using my Israeli credit card. I asked them to pay me back in dollars and to deposit it into my US account while they are in America. Is there any issue of Ribis interest involved in doing so?[1]

Depends. If the condition is to pay back the dollars in accordance to the rate at the time of the purchase of the airline ticket, then it is forbidden to do so unless a number of conditions are fulfilled.[2] However, if the condition is to pay back the dollars in accordance to the value of the Shekel to the dollar at the time of paying it back, then it is permitted to do so.[3] Thus, if at the time of the purchase of the airline ticket the dollar was worth 4 NIS, for a total debt of $1000, while if at the time that he pays back the loan by depositing the money in your bank account the dollar is worth 3.8 or 4.2 to the NIS, then he is to pay back in accordance to the current value of the dollar to the NIS, and not in accordance to the original value at the time of the loan. In such a case it is possible that the lender will receive more or less dollars then the dollar value of the loan at the original time that the loan was given. However, he will receive the same amount of NIS, or value of NIS, that was lent originally, not more and not less, and hence it is not interest.

To note, however, that this only works in this case that the loan took place in the current country’s currency which is NIS in Israel, and will be paid back with the currency of the country that the payback is taking place which is US dollars in the United States. However, if he will be paying back dollars while still in Israel, then the above conditions must be fulfilled.[4]

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[1] See Bris Pinchas chapter 16

[2] See Michaber Y.D. 175:4; Bris Pinchas 16:12; 20; Toras Ribis 19:16; Bris Yehuda 20 footnote 29

[3] Bris Pinchas 16:6 and 20; Machaneh Efraim 27; Maharam Alshich 129; Chazon Ish 72:6;

[4] See Bris Pinchas 16:12