What are some notable distinctions from secular law?
Jews are forbidden to charge each other interest on loans, so if a contract calls for interest, a beth din will often strike that provision. Jewish law considers many payments that allow one to pay more but pay later to fall under this prohibition. Thus even things that may seem innocuous may fall into this class. Jewish law does allow a work-around called a heter iska, which restructures and converts a transaction with interest into a different kind of transaction with mostly similar effects, but if the parties do not enter into a heter iska, interest is generally unenforceable. Likewise, every seven years, at the end of a shmittah year, loans between Jews are nullified, unless the creditor executed a document called a pruzbul after the loan was made but before the nullification. The nullification takes place immediately before Rosh Hashana following the shmittah year. The next such nullification will take place in 2015. There are several exceptions even without a pruzbol, but it is g
