LEV1042 Rabbis David Hartman and Tzvi Marx recommend that donors engage in "preventive tzedaka" have not just "crisis tzedaka," by not waiting until someone is impoverished before offering help. We should offer assistance to those who have fallen on hard times so that they can avoid total economic collapse. The biblical verse that mandates extending interest-free loans to the poor begins: "If your brother is in bad straits, and his means fail with him [that is, he loses the ability to support himself] ... You shall strengthen him" [this verse]. The rabbis understand the command to "strengthen" another as meaning that we must offer help when someone is just beginning to stumble.