Inflation Issues in Jewish Law
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine

In recent times, inflation has been widely recognized as a menacing social problem. While the rate of inflation in 1982 has considerably abated, its scourge wrenches recent memory. For the years 1980 and 1981, the widely followed measure of inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) increased at 12.8% and 8.9% respectively.

Inflation is decidedly injurious to anyone whose money income does not keep pace with the rising price level. Especially hard hit on this account are pensioners and other people who subsist on a fixed dollar income.

Unanticipated inflation redistributes income from creditors to debtors as the latter group pay back dollars of less purchasing power than they received.

Still another impact of inflation is to create an unwillingness on the part of market participants to enter into long term contractual agreements.

Inflation creates various issues for Jewish law. It will be the purpose of this paper to explore these various issues.