Providing for the Poor

Happy is he who considers the poor (Psalm 41:2). R. Abba ben Jeremiah said in the name of R. Meir: This refers to one who crowns the good inclination over the evil inclination. Isi said: This refers to one who gives a perutah to a poor person. R. Yoḥanan said: This refers to one who buries an abandoned body. [ . . . ] R. Huna said: This refers to one who visits the sick. [ . . . ] R. Phineas said in the name of R. Reuben: Whoever gives a perutah to a poor person, the Holy One gives him a perutah. And does he only give him a perutah?! Does he not give him his life? How so? If a loaf of bread is worth ten perutot and a poor person who wishes to buy some [bread] only has nine perutot, when someone comes and gives [the poor] person a perutah, he purchases bread, eats it, and is satiated, [so the donor has given the poor person life]. The Holy One says to [the donor]: “When your soul presses to get out of your body [i.e., you are seriously ill], I will return it to your body.” Therefore, Moses warns the people of Israel: If your brother falls into poverty [and becomes dependent on you, you shall support him] (Leviticus 25:35). [ . . . ]

If a rich person says to a poor person, “You do not toil to eat! Look at those thighs, look at those legs, look at that flesh!” the Holy One says to [the rich person], “Is it not enough that you do not give [the poor person] something, but you put the evil eye on that which I have given him?!” [ . . . ]

[The mother of] R. Tanḥuma son of R. Ḥiyya used to do as follows: when [she] was purchasing a litra of meat from the marketplace, she would purchase two, one for him and one for the poor. [ . . . ]

Jethro [dealt kindly] with Moses, as it says: He said to them [his daughters], “Call him [Moses], and let him eat bread” (Exodus 2:20). [ . . . ] And when did the Holy One give him his reward? R. Yoḥanan said in the name of R. Yosi the Galilean: In the days of Saul, as it says: Saul said to the Kenites, [Jethro’s descendants,]¹ “Come, withdraw from the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, [since you dealt kindly with all the children of Israel when they left Egypt]” (1 Samuel 15:6). Did he [Jethro] deal kindly with all of the children of Israel? Did he not [deal kindly with] Moses alone? Rather, this comes to teach you that whoever deals kindly with one of the great members of Israel, it is attributed to him as if he dealt kindly with all Israel. And these words suggest an a fortiori argument: If in the case of someone who dealt kindly with another to whom they were indebted, see how [greatly] the Holy One rewards them, all the more so in the case of someone who deals kindly with another to whom they are not indebted. [ . . . ]

R. Avin said: This poor person stands at your door, and the Holy One stands at his right, as it is written: Because He stands at the right hand of the needy (Psalm 109:31).