EXOD670 Do not maltreat widows or orphans by means of your actions or your words. Your manner with them must be warm and pleasant at all times. In all of your dealings with them you must feel mercy towards them and treat them with kindness and pity. Widows and orphans are worn of their strength, for they have no one who will stand up for them and defend their rights as vigorously as would a husband or father. Therefore, the Torah commands us to stir up kindness and mercy in our hearts and behave towards them in a protective, upright manner, as if others are trying to harm us or make claims against us. We are obligated to have pity on them. We must argue on their behalf and search for merits for them more earnestly than we would have done had the husband or father been alive.