Small tidbits and Sparks of wisdom

A contrast with the World vs Jewish community that is aware of its duty!

A
כִּי לֹא־יֶחְדַּל אֶבְיוֹן מִקֶּרֶב הָאָרֶץ עַל־כֵּן אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ לֵאמֹר פָּתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח אֶת־יָדְךָ לְאָחִיךָ לַעֲנִיֶּךָ וּלְאֶבְיֹנְךָ בְּאַרְצֶךָ׃
For the needy will not cease from the earth; therefore I command you: Open, open your hand to your brother, to your poor and your needy in your land.
B
כִּי לֹא יֶחְדַּל אֶבְיוֹן וגו׳. It does not say מקרבך or מקרב ארצך but מקרב הארץ [“from the earth”].
C
It is in the natural order of human events that, if things are left to develop as they will, the most extreme economic differences, destitution and plenty, poverty and wealth, will exist side by side. If from nothing else, this would result already from the fact that all men have not been endowed with equal abilities. Indeed, even assuming that two sons of the same father start out from their paternal home with equal resources, and then one of them has only one child, while the other must provide for a large family, this alone would produce a substantial disparity in their economic situation, and if, in addition, the brother with the large family will be beset with illness and other misfortunes, the generation that follows him may already be in dire want, in sharp contrast to the affluence of the other branch of the family.
D
It is in the nature of things that such situations should arise all over the earth [מקרב הארץ]. However, you must not permit them to arise בארצך, in your land, for it is “your” land, the land of God’s Torah and of the special Divine providence attached to the observance of the Torah. The Torah itself will level these natural disparities. There every poor man shall find a brother in his more affluent kinsman; there every poor and needy person is “yours,” belongs to the community.
E
And even as אביון לא יחדל מקרב הארץ, “a community never dies and never becomes impoverished” [see Avodah Zarah 6a; Yerushalmi, Gittin 3:7]. So, too, in a Jewish community that is aware of its duty, individual poverty and misery should be only a passing phase, to be transformed, under the aegis of Divine assistance, into a happy existence commensurate with human dignity.
F
In the Sifre our Sages also interpret כי לא יחדל אביון מקרב הארץ in the same way:
G
כי לא יחדל אביון מקרב הארץ ולהלן הוא אומר כי לא יהיה בך אביון, כיצד יתקיימו שני כתובים הללו, בזמן שאתם עושים רצונו של מקום אביונים באחרים ובזמן שאין אתם עושים רצונו של מקום אביונים בכם (cf. vv. 4–5 and Commentary there).
H
Under Jewish Law, help and support are assured to every poor person who is in need of assistance, and tzedakah does not shame the recipient who is in need of it. Moreover, one who is unable to work and earn a living but who, out of misplaced pride, deprives himself and his family of the necessities of life rather than accept the tzedakah to which he is entitled, bears a heavy burden of responsibility:
I
כל מי שהוא צריך ליטול ואינו נוטל הרי זה שופך דמים (Yerushalmi Peah, end).
J
At the same time, however, this same Law attaches great value to the preservation of a person’s independence. A person should be prepared to restrict himself to the barest necessities of life and accept any work, even that considered most menial in the eyes of a thoughtless world, in order to avoid having to appeal to the charity of his fellow men.
In no society is honest toil for an independent living held in such high esteem as it was among the Jews of old. Some of our great heroes of the spirit, whose light still shines before us, and to whom not only their contemporaries but also all the generations that followed looked with respect and admiration — among them הלל — lived in the most straitened circumstances and eked out their livelihoods as woodcutters, blacksmiths, cobblers, porters and water carriers.
By their personal example they taught the maxim עשה שבתך חול ואל תצטרך לבריות, “Live no better on Shabbos than you do during the week, and do not put yourself in need of assistance from your fellow men” (Pesachim 112a).
K
פשוט נבילתא בשוק ושקיל אגרא ולא תימא כהנא אנא וגברא רבא אנא וסניא בי מילתא, “Skin carcasses in the open market and get paid, and do not say: ‘I am a priest, I am a scholar; such work is beneath me’” (ibid. 113a; see רשב״ם Bava Basra 110a).
L
In the Mishnah at the end of Peah, our Sages say: One who does not need to take tzedakah and yet takes it will not depart from this world without having to resort to charity; but one who is entitled to take charity and yet manages to live without doing so will not leave this world in his old age without having supported others out of his own fortune.
M
כל מי שאינו צריך ליטול ונוטל, אינו נפטר מן העולם עד שיצטרך לבריות, וכל מי שצריך ליטול ואינו נוטל, אינו מת מן הזקנה עד שיפרנס אחרים משלו, ועליו הכתוב אומר (ירמיה יז, ז) בָּרוּךְ הַגֶּבֶר אֲשֶׁר יִבְטַח בַּה׳ וְהָיָה ה׳ מִבְטַחוֹ.