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LEVITICUS | 19:9 harvest — LEV317 The poor have the right to participate in ...

LEV317 The poor have the right to participate in the Jewish farmer’s harvest: the Jewish poor in accordance with the Torah and the Gentile poor mip’nei darkei shalom (for the sake of peace). (It is obviously not feasible to grant by right all the poor of the world a share in the bounty of such a small entity as the Jewish farming community.) Although at first glance the effect of these gifts on the poor of a modern nonagrarian society seems to be severely limited, this is not really so. Even today, even in industrialized societies, the specter of hunger is such that mitigating it in this form would seem to retain some importance. More importantly, perhaps, the influence of the ideology underlying these gifts in shaping the attitudes of Jews toward wealth and responsibility for each other's welfare inherent therein is as great today as ever. Similarly, the institution of gifts to the poor is based on principles that are relevant to many of the issues confronting the modern welfare state. It is this relevance, both to the concept of wealth and to the perfection of the welfare system, which, we suggest, is as important as an analysis of the role of the gifts themselves. Logically, the gifts enumerated [in this and related verses] are applicable, in one form or another, to the Jewish farmer today.

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Source KeyTAMARI
Verse19:9
Keyword(s)harvest
Source Page(s)251
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