GEN1006 The same Jewish law which protects the rights of the individual to his own property in turn limits those rights and grants others, the community and other individuals, moral claims to that property.   The rabbis of the Talmud, reflecting an interpretation that was already hundreds of years old, claimed that the sin of Sodom was its inability to share its wealth with strangers, with the weak, and with the poor—and its insistence on the absolute right of each individual to his own property.   The Mishnah defined one who said, “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine” as a simple man.   He who says, “What’s your is mine and what’s mine is mine” is an evil man.  He who says, “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is yours” is a righteous person.   But “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine – some say this is the mark of Sodom.”   Ethics of the Fathers 5:10.   [In his Bible commentary], the Malbim, a 19th-century rabbinical scholar in central Europe, commented on [this verse] as follows: It must be remembered that the Bible stresses that Sodom was fertile and rich “as the garden of Egypt” before its destruction. The citizens of Sodom were worried that the desert dwellers or the poor from the surrounding areas would come to their cities in search of a livelihood and wealth.   It was in order to prevent others from sharing in the wealth that legislation against strangers –unless they were rich, like Lot – was passed and enforced in Sodom.  This jealous protection of their wealth later led to the corrupt laws and practices which characterized Sodom and precipitated its destruction.”   There is a story about the Gaon of Vilna – the preeminent Talmudic scholar of 18th-century Lithuania – underscoring this idea.   In the middle of the 18th century there were renewed persecutions of Jews in Germany and Poland, which led to refugees flooding Vilna; the Jewish Council of Lithuania debated new legislation to prevent their entry.  Obviously what bothered them was the economic burden of providing food and shelter for the refugees, as well as the economic threat posed by their competition.   When the Gaon arrived and was told of the pending legislation he immediately left, saying, “This is considered new legislation? These are the laws enacted already in Sodom.”   Charity is not simply an act of kindness but rather the fulfillment of a legal obligation.  The “haves” in Judaism have an obligation to share their [property with the “have nots,” since it was given to them by God partly for that purpose.   TAMARI 51-2