| Translation | Original |
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| When you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him. [JPS translation] |
כִּי תִרְאֶה חֲמוֹר שֹׂנַאֲךָ רֹבֵץ תַּחַת מַשָּׂאוֹ וְחָדַלְתָּ מֵעֲזֹב לוֹ עָזֹב תַּעֲזֹב עִמּוֹ:
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1. What is the role of government and courts of law according to this text?
2. What does the text guard against? Who is most susceptible to corruption?
3. What is the reward for pursuing justice?
4. The text repeats the word "justice" several times in this text. What effect does this repetition have?
1. Do you agree with Rabbi Akiva? Why?
2. Why does this text specify that the two people are friends? How does this affect our understanding of the text?
3. What can we learn from this text about how we should divide surplus resources?
[From Nechama Leibowitz Haggadah, citing Leibowitz's "Studies on Shemot"]
The ethical imperative: Nechama pointed out that the Torah cautions us regarding our behavior toward the stranger no less than 36 times, the most repeated injunction in the Torah. Empathy is an outgrowth of experience. Nechama summarized, "We are bidden to put ourselves in the position of the stranger by remembering how it felt when we were strangers in another land."
| Original |
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By the Middle Ages, community responsibility encompassed every aspect of life. The Jewish community regulated market prices so that the poor could purchase food and other basic commodities at cost. Wayfarers were issued tickets, good for meals and lodging at homes of members of the community, who took turns in offering hospitality. Both these practices anticipated "meal tickets" and modern food stamp plans. Some Jewish communities even established "rent control," directing that the poor be given housing at rates they could afford. In Lithuania, local trade barriers were relaxed for poor refugees. When poor young immigrants came from other places, the community would support them until they completed their education or learned a trade. The organization of charity became so specialized that numerous societies were established to keep pace with all the needs. Each of the following functions was assumed by a different society on behalf of the community at large: visiting the sick, burying the dead, furnishing dowries for poor girls, providing clothing, ransoming captives, supplying maternity needs, and providing necessities for observing holidays. In addition there were public inns for travelers, homes for the aged, orphanages, and free medical care. As early as the eleventh century, a hekdesh ("hospital") was established by the Jewish community of Cologne, primarily for poor and sick travelers. Many later medieval Jewish communities in Poland and Germany adopted this pattern. Spanish Jewish communities hired doctors to serve the entire community to
ensure that health care was available to all
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1. How can we use the systems described here as a model for our own activism?
2. What is missing from this list?
3. In what ways has the Jewish community lapsed in its care for those in need?
1. What is the connection between the first and second part of the text?
2. Where does the rich man's shame come from? How can his shame be expunged in order that he might help his relative?
3. Have you ever experienced this kind of shame - either as one who was in need of help or as one who could offer help? What would have made the experience easier?
| Translation | Original |
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| Our Rabbis taught: We sustain the non-Jewish poor with the Jewish poor, visit the non-Jewish sick with the Jewish sick, and bury the non-Jewish dead with the Jewish dead, for the sake of peace. [AJWS translation] |
ת"ר: מפרנסים עניי נכרים עם עניי ישראל, ומבקרין חולי נכרים עם חולי ישראל, וקוברין מתי נכרים עם מתי ישראל, מפני דרכי שלום.
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1. Why does the Talmud stagger one’s responsibility to these different areas of charity?
2. What does this text assume about the development of one’s relationship to their community? Can a dweller contribute immediately if he or she desires to do so?
1. According to this text, who is responsible for ensuring that the poor receive charity?
2. Why would the benevolent be ashamed of the poor? Do you see examples of this today?
3. How do the values in this text translate to our tzedakah practice?
| Original |
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"For the sake of the paths of peace," said the Rabbis, non-Jews as well as Jews should be given tzedakah. This phrase has two sides. It can be understood either as grudging or as transformative. It might mean that although non-Jews are not really entitled to be helped, keeping peace in the world requires that they be given help. Or it can be understood to mean that for the sake of shalom, the highest communal good and goal, it is not only an obligation but a joy to help all human beings. It may be whichever aspect of this phrase spoke most deeply to people--the fearful and prudential one, or the one that was visionary and hopefully--depended on what the relationships between Jews and their neighbors were in any given time and place. In our own generation, when most Jews are not oppressed or outcasts, both the prudential and the hopeful may fuse into one.
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1. Are you more inclined to believe that the phrase "for the sake of paths to peace" is grudging or transformative?
2. Has the reasoning for caring for the non-Jewish poor shifted in our modern context?
3. How do you react and respond to Waskow's reasoning in the last line of the text?
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What is the significance of contributing to communal needs?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
4. What makes the purchase of property such an important act in becoming a member of the community?
והחזקת בו - אל תניחהו שירד ויפול ויהיה קשה להקימו, אלא חזקהו משעת מוטת היד. למה זה דומה, למשאוי שעל החמור, עודהו על החמור אחד תופס בו ומעמידו, נפל לארץ, חמשה אין מעמידין אותו:
1. In today's world there are millions of people who are slipping and millions more who have already fallen completely. Knowing this, how can we still utilize the wisdom of this text?
2. How does this text impact how we might think about foreign aid?
| Translation | Original |
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| R. Joseph learnt: If you lend money to any of my people that are poor with you: [this teaches, if the choice lies between] a Jew and a non-Jew, a Jew has preference; the poor or the rich the poor takes precedence; your poor [i.e. your relatives] and the [general] poor of your town, your poor come first; the poor of your city and the poor of another town the poor of your own town have prior rights. [Soncino translation] |
דתני רב יוסף (שמות כ"ב) אם כסף תלוה את עמי את העני עמך, עמי ונכרי - עמי קודם, עני ועשיר - עני קודם, ענייך ועניי עירך - ענייך קודמין, עניי עירך ועניי עיר אחרת - עניי עירך קודמין.
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1. What does it mean that your fellow's means fail with you?
2. Why does the law specify whether a stranger or a settler?
3. How would this law read if it were on a national scale, rather than a personal directive?