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DEUTERONOMY | 15:11 hands — DEUT797 … endeavor to keep your hands off worldly...

DEUT797 … endeavor to keep your hands off worldly possessions that do not belong to you. Abstain from the various kinds of theft, fraud, robbery, and wrong committed against others. Hesitate before moving your hands, and reflect on the consequences. Maintain your morals and modesty by exalting yourself above doing wrong with the hands, as it says: “Who keeps his hand from any wrongdoing” (Yeshayahu 56:2); “Who shakes out his palms, lest they hold any bribe” (ibid. 33: 15). Instead, employ your hands in [the performance of] God’s commandments. Open them with gifts to the poor and the destitute, as it says in Scripture: “Open wide your hand to your poor and destitute brother” (Devarim 15:11); “She opens her hand to the poor” (Mishlei 31:20). You must also employ [your hands] in [a vocation] that will supply your needs and keep you from soliciting [from others] or from taking money that is forbidden, [a vocation that will prevent you] from becoming a vehicle for others’ attainment of virtue through their generosity and kindness toward you, so that you not cede to them your merits, your kind acts to one who was kind to you. You must not become a burden to other people. As one of the wise has said, “God will have compassion upon a servant who detaches himself from the world without his detachment being a burden upon his friends, who engages in one of the trades and thus frees them from all trouble on his behalf.” As it says, “You will eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you will be happy and it will be well with you” (Tehillim 128: 2). It has been observed: “Essential to abstinence is the securing of a livelihood.” It has been observed further: “Essential to abstinence is giving thought to securing what is necessary,” that is, one should be industrious in working for one's basic needs.

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Source KeyDUTIES
Verse15:11
Keyword(s)hands
Source Page(s)821-3
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