JWST 382 Chapter Notes - Chapter 01-11: Working Poor, Soup Kitchen, Ancient Law
7 Apr 2016
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01/11 dorff, you shall strengthen them: a rabbinic letter on the poor. Responsibility to poor as individ/community is essential jewish value. Howev, there is lack of clear guidelines re: approach to poverty/guidelines to combat it: jewish value-concepts relevant to concern for the poor. Judaism can give social context for thinking abt moral issues. Cannot isolate jewish law from jewish tradition/civilization: saving or guarding human life. Providing the poor w food is essential task. Supreme value placed on human life: community. Caring for the poor is a community effort, often itself forms communities. Though you can lose jewish privileges, you cannot lose the jewish obligation to the poor: compassion. Compassion also invokes empathy for the poor in the jewish context. Jews hav known slavery due to poverty, and thus hav greater empathy: god"s commandment. The fact that god told jews to assist the poor, or the implicit threat of punishment, was and still is a key factor in motivating jewish charity.
