LEV313 See [[EXOD415]] Exodus 20:12 honor SPERO 44

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LEV315 The Rabbis taught: One is not permitted to gaze at an image, it being written: "Do not turn to the idols." What does this signify? R. Chanan said: Do not turn to the creations of your imagination (Shabbath 149a).

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LEV316 The Bible and later Judaism understand th[e] fundamental, divine value of each person and related values to require support to meet the needs of the poor. The Torah mandates practices in the context of a farming community. The corners of one's fields, cleanings, and forgotten produce are to be left for the poor to take, in addition to a tithe for support of the needy [this and following verse]. Rabbinic Judaism developed the Hebrew Bible's value of justice (tzedek) and institutions for support of the needy into tzedakah. That which is to be given to the poor never simply belonged to the giver, but was God's, and was owed to the needy as their right. Codifying traditions that go back to the Talmud and beyond, the Shulhan Arukh, the authoritative 16th century code of Jewish law, states that "each individual is obligated to give to the poor.… If one gives less than is appropriate, the courts may administer lashes until he gives according to the assessment, and the courts may go to his property in his presence and take the amount that it is appropriate to give." S.A. Yoreh De'ah 248:1 (Continued at [[DEUT743]] Deuteronomy 15:8 needy OXFORD 346). (By Aaron L. Mackler, "Jewish Bioethics: The Distribution of Health Care")

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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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LEV318 See [[LEV270]] Leviticus 19:2 holy DORFFWITO 117-8

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LEV319 What is the intent of "you shall not gather"? You shall not gather it for the poor man (Gittin 12a)

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LEV320 Our ethical teachings have been able to produce the ideal man because they interwove religion and morality and insisted that man owes duties to his Creator, as well as to his fellow-man. A symbol of this union between Belief and Action is the fact that the Ten Commandments, almost equally divided between these twin duties of man, are depicted in our synagogues as engraved on one tablet and in equal perpendicular columns. Judaism does not countenance any distinction between these two fields of man's responsibility, laying greater stress on man's duties towards his fellows, lest they be given second place. To emphasize this, Rabbi Hanina b. Dosa, one of the saintliest of men, declared: "He in whom the spirit of his fellow creatures takes delight, in him the Spirit of the All-Present takes delight." (Avot iii. 13). The order of this statement is significant. The duties man owes to his fellows take precedence; but only when these are harmoniously combined with his duties towards God, will man reach perfection and qualify for "a portion in the World to Come". (See [this and surrounding verses] for an ethical presentation of faith, followed by the statement "I am the Lord".)

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LEV323 Leave pe’ah (an unharvested corner of the field for the sake of the poor). Hashem wants His Chosen People to be crowned with every admirable trait and quality. He wants them to be generous and giving so that their souls are blessed. There is no doubt that when a man does not harvest a corner of his field and allows the poor to take freely of what grows there, the act positively influences his soul and helps to make him kind hearted. As a result, the blessings of Hashem will abide in him. He will be satisfied with Hashem's goodness and his soul will be glad. On the other hand, when a man harvests his entire crop and brings it all into his house--when the poor saw it when it was ripe and desired it to quell their hunger but he left none of it for them--he shows a selfish spirit and unfeeling heart. He surely invites evil upon himself.

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LEV324 There seems to be some type of disagreement over the applicability of agricultural biblical commandments in the outside of Palestine, because even in the Babylonian Talmud, some rabbis saw some of them as applicable in the Diaspora. Hullin 137b. This controversy eventually led to a metaphoric understanding of some of the biblical agricultural commandments and the rabbinic reinterpretation of ethical principles for an urban market economy. So, one finds, for example, that from the agricultural commandments concerning peah, (the leaving of the "corners" of the field for the poor--(this and preceding verse) provided the rabbis with a basis for establishing norms for the treatment and welfare of the poor. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Matenot Aniyim, Chapters 1-10, especially chapter 7 where he diagrams the different methods of helping the poor.) The principles for the treatment and welfare of the poor established by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah established norms for controlling the economic imbalances apparent in society as well as curbing the evil effects of this economic imbalance: i.e., total self-interest.

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LEV321 … all religions, and many secular philosophies (to the hard-line Marxist, charity is a sop extended by the rich to the poor in order to avoid the revolution. Hence it is an evil) are generous in their praise of the virtue of charity. To the best of my knowledge, Judaism broke new ground when it integrated the act of sharing one's possessions with the needy into its ritual and civil law. The giving of charity is not considered to be merely the exercise of another virtue, like courage, prudence, or self-control. It is an integral part of the Law, like the commandant to offer sacrifices, or not to steal or swear falsely. The commandment enjoining the sharing of one's possessions with "the poor and a stranger" is sandwiched between a ritual law regarding animal sacrifice and a civil law forbidding deceitful dealing with one another. ... [Citing Leviticus 19:9–10] ... A large tractate of the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud (Pe'ah) are devoted to this elaboration of these verses. They form the basis for the law of tzedakah, of sharing one's material possessions with the less fortunate. This occupies a prominent place in every major code of Jewish Law (see Maimonides, Hilkhot Matnot Aniyim and Hilkhot Zedakah, in [sic? should be "and"?] Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah, pars. 247-59).

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