DEUT1401 No pledge may be seized from a widow, whether she be rich or poor, whether the article is used in the preparation of food or not, since it is written [this verse]: "Nor take the widow's raiment to pledge." Scripture did not intend to restrict the prohibition to clothes alone, but to all the widow's possessions. Even the messenger of the court, outside her house, is forbidden to take anything from her. If he enters her house and seizes a pledge, he has transgressed two negative commandments of the Torah, "You shall not go into his house to take the pledge" and also "Nor take the widow's raiment to pledge."