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When Hillel the Elder saw that they were refraining from lending one another and were then violating the Torah injunction "Beware lest you harbor the thought," (Deuteronomy 15:9) he instituted the prozbul so that the debt would not be forgiven so that they would lend one another. And the prozbul is only effective with the shemitah [cancellation of debts] of money in our times because it is a rabbinic injunction, but with the shemitah of the Torah, it is not effective.
[AJWS translation]"

1. Why were people originally hesitant to lend money? How did Hillel fix this?
2. What is so important about the willingness to lend money?