(7) If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kin in any of your settlements in the land that your God יהוה is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin. (8) Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.
Why does the Torah have to warn us "not to harden your heart"?
How do you think we define what a person needs?
Do we need a commandment to give tzedakah?
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: ״דֵּי מַחְסוֹרוֹ״ — אַתָּה מְצֻוֶּוה עָלָיו לְפַרְנְסוֹ, וְאִי אַתָּה מְצֻוֶּוה עָלָיו לְעַשְּׁרוֹ. ״אֲשֶׁר יֶחְסַר לוֹ״ — אֲפִילּוּ סוּס לִרְכּוֹב עָלָיו וְעֶבֶד לָרוּץ לְפָנָיו. אָמְרוּ עָלָיו עַל הִלֵּל הַזָּקֵן שֶׁלָּקַח לְעָנִי בֶּן טוֹבִים אֶחָד סוּס לִרְכּוֹב עָלָיו וְעֶבֶד לָרוּץ לְפָנָיו. פַּעַם אַחַת לֹא מָצָא עֶבֶד לָרוּץ לְפָנָיו, וְרָץ לְפָנָיו שְׁלֹשָׁה מִילִין.
The Sages taught: “Sufficient for his deficiency”; this teaches that you are commanded with respect to the poor person to support him, but you are not commanded with respect to him to make him wealthy.: “Which is deficient for him”; this includes even a horse upon which to ride and a servant to run in front of him. They said about Hillel the Elder that he obtained for a poor person of noble descent a horse upon which to ride and a servant to run in front of him. One time he did not find a servant to run in front of him, and Hillel himself ran in front of him for three mil, to fulfill the dictate “which is deficient for him.”
According to the first line, when giving tzedakah one does not have to make a person rich. But then in the second line, it says that you have to buy him a horse and a servant to run in front of him, things that only rich people have. Do you think these two lines contradict?
According to these laws, what is the point of giving tzedakah?
A certain person came before Rabbi Neḥemya to request charity. He said to him: On what do you normally dine? He said to him: I usually dine on fatty meat and aged wine. Rabbi Neḥemya asked him: Is it your wish to belittle yourself and partake together with me in a meal of lentils, which is my regular food? He partook with him of lentils, and he died. Rabbi Neḥemya said: Woe to this one who was killed by Neḥemya. The Gemara wonders: On the contrary, Rabbi Neḥemya should have said: Woe to Neḥemya who killed this one. Rather, Rabbi Neḥemya meant that it was he, the pauper, who should not have pampered himself so much.
Who is to blame for the poor person's death? The poor person who wanted to eat expensive meat? Or Rabbi Nehemyah who fed him an inexpensive dish of lentils? Note that the story is not so clear?
What does this story teach us about giving tzedakah? What kinds of things must we be careful about?