DEUT641 Among those injunctions associated with tightfistedness and refraining from an action: "You must not close your hand to your destitute brother… Beware, lest there be a lawless thought in your heart to say, 'The seventh year is approaching, the year of remission [of loans]', and you regard your destitute brother malevolently and do not give him" (Devarim 15:7-9). We learn from here that one who refrains from lending the poor has violated two negative commandments, which are "beware" [and] "lest." If when the seventh year approaches, we are admonished not to cease from lending for fear of the matter of remission [of loans] [The seventh year of the Shemittah cycle cancels all loans.] -- how much greater is the sin of one who tightfistedly refuses to lend when he will not lose what is owed him! [I.e. when the remission of Shemittah does not apply.] Due to the gravity of the sin, the Torah declares the mean thought of not giving out loans -- "a lawless thought." Furthermore, our Sages, z"l, said (Ketubos 68a), "Whoever turns a blind eye to charity is as if he has committed idolatry --the pasuk states here, 'Lest there be a lawless thought in your heart,' and the pasuk states there [this verse], 'Lawless men from among you went out.'" [I.e., Regarding a city that practices idolatry, the Torah describes the inhabitants similarly as lawless.] Our Sages, z"l, (Midrash Tehillim 53) also referred to one who has meanness of spirit as lawless. Similarly, the pasuk states (I Shmuel 25:25), "… Against this lawless person, against Naval"--because he had meanness of spirit, for he said to the servants of David [HaMelech] (ibid. 11), "Should I take my bread and my water and my meat… [… And give them to men who I know not from where they come?"] Our Sages, z"l, said (Shabbos 63a), "One who gives a loan to the poor is superior to one who gives charity."