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Giving to poor mandated
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
R'eh/Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17
This week, in the context of the biblical command to erase all debts every seventh sabbatical year, we find two statements regarding poverty that seem, at least upon initial reading, to contradict each other.
In the first statement we read, "There shall be no needy among you - since the Lord your God will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion" (Deuteronomy 15:4).
But several verses later we read the following admonition, "Give to (the needy person) readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the Lord your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings. For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you (to) open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land" (Deuteronomy 15:10-11).
It certainly sounds as if the Bible is contradicting itself as to whether or not poverty will eventually disappear from society.
Rashi, in his commentary, theorizes that "as long as you fulfill the will of God, the poor will be (among others), but not among you. But if you do not fulfill the will of God, then there will be poor among you."
Rashi is fundamentally teaching that whether or not poverty is eradicated depends upon the obedience of the Jewish society, or even the world society, to the social laws of the Torah. Insofar as the community of Israel or the global international community is ready to accept the biblical ideals of fair labor laws, free enterprise, maximal work opportunities and periodic remission of debts, the eradication of poverty becomes an attainable goal. And clearly, proper magnanimity towards those who have less and are suffering is one of the most important lessons the Torah attempts to convey. Indeed, the language in our Torah portion is graphic: "Open your hand to the poor."
One of the most readily discernible distinctions between an infant at birth and a corpse in repose is that we are born with closed fists but we die with our fingers outstretched and open wide. Whereas we enter the world grasping whatever we have, we leave empty of all possessions. Just as the journey from birth to death is a journey from the closed fist to the opening of the fist, so too the goal of the human being is to transform himself from a child who thinks only of himself (closed fist) into an adult whose commitment to the Torah has allowed him to live the latter part of his life - and so to leave this world - with an open and giving hand.
The centrality of the commandment to give freely to the poor is also demonstrated in the life and death of King David.
In the Talmud, we read an account of the wise men of Israel entering the chambers of King David and complaining that the poor of Israel have nothing to eat. The regal scholar suggests that the nation should go out in troops and fight a voluntary war, gaining more land with which the people will gain more produce.
But then in the Bible, when King David is giving orders to build the Temple, he says, "I have laid aside for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold and 1 million talents of silver, and so much copper and iron it cannot be weighed" (I Chronicles 22:14).
Why did David not disperse such massive resources to alleviate his subjects hunger rather than send his people to war? Apparently, he was saving the gold and silver in order to build the Temple; apparently he considered the ultimate goal of the construction of the Temple to be more important than the immediate necessity of alleviating poverty.
The sages of the Talmud also record how King David suffered a violent death. Because David had been told by God that he would die on the Sabbath, David would sit and study Torah every minute of the Sabbath. But the angel of death caused noise to emerge from the trees in a garden outside of the king's chambers. King David climbed a ladder to investigate, fell from the ladder and died.
Our sages teach us that charity to other human beings is more important even than building the holy Temple to God.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Efrat, Israel.
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