How Do We Determine Whom To Help?
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Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:2
Translation Original
The life of any sick person is deemed to be in danger. [AJWS translation]
ר' חלבו ור' שמעון בר אבא בש"ר יהושע בן לוי אמר כל החולים בחזקת סכנה
Suggested Discussion Questions

1. How do you define sickness?
2. What does it mean to equate sickness with danger?
3. Is "sickness" the right model for social justice? How does this metaphor impact our work?

Arthur Green, These are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life (Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1999), p. 181.
Original

The “needy” who receive tsedakah have also come to be defined as the educationally, emotionally, and spiritually hungry as well as those who literally cry out for bread.
Suggested Discussion Questions

1. Why is hunger associated with these other needs?
2. How does this expanded definition of hunger affect the work of social justice?
3. Is there a priority amongst these different hungers?

BabylonianTalmud, Sanhedrin 32b
סנהדרין ל״ב ב:ו׳-ז׳
כדתניא: צדק צדק תרדף - אחד לדין ואחד לפשרה. כיצד? שתי ספינות עוברות בנהר ופגעו זה בזה, אם עוברות שתיהן - שתיהן טובעות, בזה אחר זה - שתיהן עוברות. וכן שני גמלים שהיו עולים במעלות בית חורון ופגעו זה בזה, אם עלו שניהן - שניהן נופלין, בזה אחר זה - שניהן עולין. הא כיצד? טעונה ושאינה טעונה - תידחה שאינה טעונה מפני טעונה. קרובה ושאינה קרובה - תידחה קרובה מפני שאינה קרובה. היו שתיהן קרובות, שתיהן רחוקות - הטל פשרה ביניהן, ומעלות שכר זו לזו.
Sanhedrin 32b:6-7
It has been taught: Justice, justice shall you follow; the first [mention of justice] refers to a decision based on strict law; the second, to a compromise. How so? Where two boats sailing on a river meet; If both attempt to pass simultaneously, both will sink, whereas, if one makes way for the other, both can pass [without mishap]. Likewise, if two camels met each other while on the ascent to Beth-Horon; if they both ascend [at the same time] both may tumble down [into the valley]; but if [they ascend] after each other, both can go up [safely]. How then should they act? If one is laden and the other unladen, the latter should give way to the former. If one is nearer [to its destination] than the other, the former should give way to the latter. If both are [equally] near or far [from their destination,] make a compromise between them, the one [which is to go forward] compensating the other [which has to give way]. [Soncino translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions

1. What are the factors by which to decide who takes precedence?
2. In what ways might we apply these same factors when prioritizing our foreign policy? Our domestic policies?

She’elot and teshuvot of the Hatam Sofer 2:231
Translation Original
“If there is a poor person within your gates,” Sifre (collection of legal midrash on the book of Deuteronomy) expounds this verse saying, “When one is starving, the one who is starving takes precedence” and then expounds, “The poor of your city take precedence over the poor of another city.” That is to say—this applies if both poor people need food or clothing. However, if the poor of your city have what they need to live, but just don’t have any extra money [and the poor of the other city don’t have food or clothing], then the poor of the other city take precedence over the poor of your city, for the neediest takes precedence. [Translation by Rabbi Jill Jacobs]
כי יהיה בך אביון באחד שעריך דדריש ספרי אביון התאב תאב קודם ושוב דריש עניי עמך קודמין וכו' ועניי קרוביך קודמין כ' ז"ל לכן הקדים התאב תאב קודם לומר עניי עירך קודמין לעניי עיר אחרת היינו אם שניהם צריכים למזון או לכסות אבל אם עניי עירך יש להם כדי חיותם אלא שאין להם הרוחה כלל לזה עניי עיר אחרת קודמין לעניי עירך דהתאב תאב קודם
Suggested Discussion Questions

1. When do we prioritize the poor of our city over the poor of another? Why?
2. When do the poor of another city take precedence? Why?
3. How do we decide how to split our resources when they are limited? Who should take precedence in our social justice work?