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If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them.
Exodus 22:24
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. Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
Beware lest you harbor the base thought, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,” so that you are mean and give nothing to your needy kin—who will cry out to יהוה against you, and you will incur guilt. Give readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return your God יהוה 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: open your hand to the poor and needy kin in your land.
Deuteronomy 15:9-11
We are commanded to give a poor person according to what he lacks. If he lacks clothes, we should clothe him. If he lacks household utensils, we should purchase them for him. If he is unmarried, we should help him marry. And for an unmarried woman, we should find a husband for her.
Even if the personal habit of this poor person was to ride on a horse and to have a servant run before him and then he became impoverished and lost his wealth, we should buy a horse for him to ride and a servant to run before him…
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 7:3
There are
those
who teach that which Rav Huna
said in connection with
that which Rav Yosef taught:
The verse states:
“If you lend money to any of My people, even to the poor person who is with you”
(Exodus 22:24). The term “My people” teaches that if one of
My people,
i.e., a Jew,
and a gentile
both come to borrow money from you,
My people take precedence.
The term “the poor person” teaches that if
a poor person and a rich person
come to borrow money,
the poor person takes precedence…
Bava Metzia 71a:3
[A loan secured by] a prozbul is not cancelled. This was one of the things enacted by Hillel the elder; for when he observed people refraining from lending to one another, and thus transgressing what is written in the Torah, “Beware, lest you harbor the base thought, [‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,’ so that you are mean to your needy kinsman and give him nothing.” Hillel enacted the prozbul. This is the formula of the prozbul: “I turn over to you, so-and-so, judges of such and such a place, that any debt that I may have outstanding…
Mishnah Sheviit 10:3-4
You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is needy and urgently depends on it; else a cry to יהוה will be issued against you and you will incur guilt.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15
In every city where Jews live, they are obligated to appoint faithful, men of renown as trustees of a charitable fund. They should circulate among the people from Friday to Friday and take from each person what is appropriate for him to give and the assessment made upon him. They then allocate the money from Friday to Friday, giving each poor person sufficient food for seven days. This is called the
kupah
. Similarly, we appoint trustees who take bread, different types of food, fruit, or money from every courtyard from those who make a spontaneous donation and divide what was collected…
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 9:1-3
You may dun the foreigner; but you must remit whatever is due you from your kin. There shall be no needy among you—since your God יהוה will bless you in the land that your God יהוה is giving you as a hereditary portion— if only you heed your God יהוה and take care to keep all this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day. For your God יהוה will bless you as promised: you will extend loans to many nations, but require none yourself; you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you.
Deuteronomy 15:3-6
But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you,
Leviticus 25:6
One who possesses two hundred zuz, may not take gleanings” the forgotten sheaf, peah or the poor man’s tithe. If he possesses two hundred minus one denar, then even if a thousand [men] each give him at the same time, he may accept. If he had [two hundred zuz] mortgaged to a creditor or to his wife’s ketubah, he may take. They do not force him to sell his house or his tools.
Mishnah Peah 8:8
If a poor person asks one for a donation and he has nothing to give him, he should conciliate him with words. It is forbidden to scold a poor person or to raise one's voice against him while shouting, because his heart is broken and crushed, and [Psalms 51:19] states: "God will not scorn a broken and crushed heart." And [Isaiah 57:15 describes as Divine the attribute of] "reviv[ing] the spirit of the lowly and revitalize[ing] the heart of the crushed." Woe unto he who shames the poor, woe be he! Instead, one should be like a father to him, both in mercies and in words…
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 10:5-14
When a poor person whose identity is unknown says: "I am hungry, provide me with food," we do not investigate whether he is a deceiver. Instead, we provide him with sustenance immediately. If he was unclothed and he said: "Cloth me," we investigate whether he is a deceiver. If we are familiar with him, we clothe him according to his honor immediately and we do not investigate the matter.
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 7:6
ולקט קצירך [NEITHER SHALT THOU COLLECT] THE GLEANINGS OF THY HARVEST — Gleanings are ears that drop from the hand of the harvester during the reaping — one or two at a time, but three do not come under the category of לקט (Mishna Peah 6:5; Sanhedrin 99a).
Rashi on Leviticus 19:9:2
The sabbatical year cancels a debt written in a document or one not written in a document. A debt to a shop is not cancelled, but if it had been converted into the form of a loan, then it is cancelled. Rabbi Judah says: the former debt is always cancelled. A wage-debt to a worker is not cancelled, but if it had been converted into a loan it is cancelled. Rabbi Yose says: the [payment for] any work that must cease with the seventh year, is cancelled, but if it need not cease with the seventh year, then it is not cancelled…
Mishnah Sheviit 10:1-2
Every seventh year you shall practice remission of debts. This shall be the nature of the remission: all creditors shall remit the due that they claim from their fellow [Israelites]; they shall not dun their fellow [Israelites] or kin, for the remission proclaimed is of יהוה.
Deuteronomy 15:1-2
Any person who does not need to take [charity] and deceives the people and takes will not reach old age and die until he requires assistance from people at large. He is among those of whom it is said [Jeremiah 17:5]: "Cursed be a person who trusts in mortals."
[Conversely,] anyone who needs to take [charity] and cannot exist unless he takes, e.g., an elderly man, sick, or beset by afflictions, but is proud and does not take is considered as a murderer. He is liable for his soul and all that he has earned through his hardship is sin and guilt…
Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 10:19
§
It is taught
in a
baraita
:
Rabbi Meir would say: An opponent may bring an argument against you and say to you: If your God loves the poor, for what
reason
does He not support them
Himself? In such a case,
say to him:
He commands us to act as His agents in sustaining the poor,
so that through them we will be
credited with the performance of mitzvot and therefore be
saved from the judgment of Gehenna. And this is the question that Turnus Rufus the wicked asked Rabbi Akiva: If your God loves the poor…
Bava Batra 10a:2-4
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