GEN983 There are four attitudes among those how give charity: One who wishes that he should give and others should not, begrudges others what is theirs; that others should give and he should not – he is grudging toward what is his own (a miser); that he should give, and others too – he is pious, a hassid; that neither he nor others should give – he is wicked. Pirkei Avot V:16   Two of the four types in the mishnah do not want to give any charity; they why, we might ask, does the mishnah classify all four as “those who give charity”?   The answer is perhaps that if they themselves will not give, as members of their community they are likely in a position to prevail on others to give. So they are included among those who contribute. Or else, while these two types do not want to give charity, they will generally contribute anyway, under social (or other) pressure.  R. Moses Alshech [ca. 1507-1600: pupil of R. Joseph Caro] gives a most moving answer: The essential, innate nature of every Jew is to be religious; beyond the reaches of his conscious mind, his spiritual roots lie in the soil of Torah. Hence the Talmud teaches that if someone vows to derive no benefit from “the circumcised,” he may receive no benefit from uncircumcised Jews either. Mishnah, Nedarim iii 11 (Talmud 31b).  For in spirit, everyone in Jewry enters unreservedly into the Covenant of Abraham. By the same token, every Jew is, at heart, charitable. The Almighty Himself said of Abraham, “I have known him, that he may bid his children … to do tz’dakah …” [this verse]  Two characteristics of the Jew, says the Talmud, are that he is compassionate and does acts of kindness. Yebamoth 78a.  Thus the mishnah calls all Jewry “givers of charity”; if two types refuse to give, they have barriers; they suffer from resistances. At heart they are “givers of charity.” (Similarly, the next mishnah will speak of “four types among those who go to the House of Study,” then will describe two that do not go. Refuse as they will, in their souls they can be counted among the faithful who attend the synagogue for prayer and study.)   SINAI3 155-6