GEN97 Because every human being was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27; 5:1), each person has an inherent dignity that must not be compromised by poverty. This requires that we aid the poor and that the process of collecting the principal on a loan after it has expired must be a dignified one. “When you make a loan of any sort to your neighbor, you must not enter his house to seize his pledge. You must remain outside, while the man to whom you made the loan brings the pledge out to you” Deuteronomy 24:10-11). The dignity of the poor person is also the governing value of the famous hierarchy of modes of charity that Maimonides created, culling together and organizing previous sources in his characteristically thoughtful, ordered, and sweeping way. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:7-14)