Ki Tetzeh 49-6

When you go out

Deuteronomy 24:5-13

Do you respect the poor just as the rich?

Clothing may be used as a pledge against the devolution of a loan. The one who has the money and lends it may be tempted to act as lord over the one who needs to borrow from him. The Torah rules this feeling forcing the lender to respect the privacy and integrity of the one in need, and does not allow him to enter the borrower¹s house to take his garment as a pledge. He has to let the one in need give him the garment. Besides, he cannot keep a night garment overnight and a day garment during the day so the borrower is not forced to suffer the night's cold and being naked during the day.

This teaches us that the poor is to be respected as well as the rich. The rich cannot be honoured more for being rich than the poor just for being poor. One who honours a wealthy man and shows disrespect to the poor one is giving more value to riches than to a human being; that is a severe deviation of the Heavenly value system. Money does not deserve more honour than a human life. The human being must be respected just for the fact of being a human, created in the image and likeness of the Almighty.

When one enters a clothing store, a bank, or travels on a plane wearing seemingly cheap and ordinary clothes, he is usually treated less respectfully than when wearing apparently expensive garments. I've noticed that even if you are wearing a tie that costs less than a Coke you receive more honour than when not wearing a tie. The world is programmed to honour money more than the human being.

The Torah teaches us that showing favouritism towards certain people is a sin, as written in Yaakov 2:1-9 "My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Yeshua the Messiah, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers." (NIV revised)

May the Eternal deliver us from honouring the rich more than the poor.

Kol tuv,

Ketriel