LEV270 ... Jewish tradition provides a rationale for helping the poor that speaks to our own character: we would want to be the kind of people who aid those in need. Whereas non-Jews might help others for similar reasons of self-image and self-respect, the Torah put these considerations in theological terms: we should aspire to be not only decent and even noble human beings, but also Godlike. We should strive to be holy like God, and part of the way to do that is to provide for the poor as the following selections made clear. [Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-10; Deuteronomy 13:5; Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 14a.]