DEUT768 We have learned (Kethuvoth 68a): "Anyone who shuts his eyes against charity is like one who worships idols, for it is written [this verse]: 'Beware that there be not a base thought (beli-ya'al) in your heart… and your eye will be evil against your brother,' and there (concerning the city where the inhabitants were guilty of idolatry--Tr.) it is written (Ibid. 13:14): 'Certain base fellows (beli-ya'al) have gone out.'" (The inference is drawn by Gezerah Shavah -- Tr.). Now it is known that [this] verse also refers to a person refusing a request for a loan, as we find in Gittin 37a and Sotah 47b. Now let each person consider: Suppose someone called him 'Beli-Ya'al'. How much resentment would he harbor against the person who insulted him, even if the two of them had been alone at the time, and he therefore suffered no public embarrassment. How angry should a person be with himself, then, if he causes the Torah to call him by this name! How much shame and humiliation will ultimately attach to him in heaven! He should also be apprehensive because perhaps the person he wronged will cry out against him, as it is written [this verse]: "And he cry out against you to God and it shall be a sin in you." One's entire situation might be changed, Chazal have indicated (Temurah 16a): "When a poor man approaches a rich man and cries 'Help me!' (i.e., prevent my falling by giving me a gift or a loan to make me self-supporting. [See Betzah 32a]), if he assists him it is well, but if not (Proverbs 22:2) 'the rich and the poor meet together and God is Master of them all.' He who made this one rich can make him poor, and He who made the other poor can make him rich." (Continued at [[DEUT1547]] Deuteronomy 28:47 serve AHAVCH 104).