פירוש על קידושין 39:20

This next stage, having to sell one’s daughter, is from elsewhere in the Torah. So what is it doing here? The Talmud says that it is here to teach that it is better to sell one’s daughter than borrow with interest. In our minds, this probably sounds quite exaggerated, but borrowing money at very high interest rates, which was certainly the case in the pre-modern world, could easily lead to financial ruin. Selling one’s daughter can always be fixed by buying her back. Once one is in debt to a loan shark, the interest compounds and there is nothing one will be able to do to get out of debt.