DEUT1033 The Sifre comments: "Does it occur to anyone that the elders were suspected of shedding blood? With their statement implies is this: he did not come to us and we dismissed him without food; and we have not seen him and neglected to escort him." Failure to help the needy may expose them to starvation. "The Torah," R. Simlai observed, "begins with loving kindness and ends with loving kindness." Sifre, Deut. 210; Sotah 9:6; 14b. See story of Nahum of Gimzo, Taanit 21a. A harsh and hostile world taught the Jewish people to aid one another in distress. Jewish communities considered it to be part of prudence as well as of religious duty to care for their own poor, and to prevent them from becoming burdens to their neighbors. Yoreh Deah 254. Motives of humanity prompted them further to come to the aid of the non-Jewish poor. Philo considers charity a debt due to all men, including strangers, slaves, and even enemies. De Caritate (Philo), 17-18. Josephus writes that Moses taught the following duties towards one's neighbors, without distinction: giving them fire, water and food, showing them the road and burying their dead. Apion II; 29. The Talmud teaches that indigent non-Jews must not be prevented from sharing the gleanings, the forgotten sheaf and the corners of the fields. They were to be supported along with the Jewish needy; the sick were to be visited and their dead given burial, for the sake of peace and goodwill. Git. 61a; H. Matnot Aniyim 7:7.
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