Deuteronomy 15:7

Hebrew Bible

6 For the Lord your God will bless you just as he has promised; you will lend to many nations but will not borrow from any, and you will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you. 7 If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition. 8 Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend him whatever he needs.

Isaiah 58:7

Hebrew Bible

6 No, this is the kind of fast I want: I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke. 7 I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe them! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood. 8 Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard.

 Notes and References

"... As stated earlier, the Tanakh often addresses the individual rather than the community when stating requirements for supporting the poor. For example, in Isaiah (58:7) we read ... And Deuteronomy (15:7-8) requires ... The English translation of these texts conceals the singular form of these instructions in the Hebrew text. Encouragement to independently support the poor also appears in numerous rabbinic texts. Such personal assistance may be directed at relatives, friends and neighbors. We have already mentioned the stories about Hillel, who provided a horse and a slave for a poor person from a good family. The narrative of Rabbi Yonah, whose sensitive ―loan‖ was later revealed to be a gift to a poor person from a good family, may also be included in this category. These stories indicate that private support was often given to poor persons with high status. This may be the case since individual support is nearly the only category of giving for which the relative poor are eligible, according to the model presented in the Mishnah. In contrast to communal assistance, private gifts also guaranteed a much higher level of confidentiality. Thus, since rabbinic texts from the land of Israel assume that the relative poor who required support experienced greater levels of shame than the ordinary poor, such giving added extra protection for their dignity. However, the relative poor were not the exclusive recipients of private support ..."

Wilfand, Yael Poverty, Charity and the Image of the Poor in Rabbinic Texts from the Land of Israel (pp. 240-241) Duke University, 2011

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