Hillel, the first century B.C.E. sage, enacted the prozbul, a legislative decree, in order to encourage people to make loans to one another even though there was an upcoming sabbatical year. In the sabbatical year, debts which had been contracted were annulled according to the laws of the Torah (Deut. 15:1–2). By transferring the debt to the court, it remained collectible.

“Whatever of yours that is with your brothers your hand shall release” (Deut. 15:3), but not one who gives his mortgages to the court. On this basis, they said: Hillel ordained the prozbul, on account of the order of the world. He saw that (people) held back from lending one another and transgressed what is written in the Torah, so he arose and ordained the prozbul.

And this is the formula of the prozbul: “I give to you, so-and-so and so-and-so, the judges in such-and-such place, every debt which I have, so that I may collect it whenever I wish,” and the judges sign below, or the witnesses.

28. Trans. L. H. Schiffman.