Overview: Concern for Social Welfare in the Jewish
Tradition
The high value placed by the Jewish tradition on active
concern for the welfare of others has its roots in the Torah. Phrases such as
"that your brother may live with you"(Leviticus 25:35) and "you
shall love your fellow person as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) are found
there. What is the rationale for Jews' concerning themselves with other Jews'
welfare? The verses cited portray one Jew’s concern for another as motivated by
a sense of brotherhood. As kinsmen, Jews have a familial responsibility for
each other's welfare.
Maimonides, the great Spanish/North African sage of the 12th
century, develops this rationale in codifying the ways in which this obligation
is to be fulfilled: "It is a positive commandment, ordained by the rabbis,
to visit the sick, to comfort mourners, to bury the dead, to provide for a
bride, to accompany guests, to arrange for burial, to bear the bier on one's
shoulder, to go before the coffin and to mourn, to dig the grave and to bury
the dead. Also to gladden a bride and groom and to provide for all their needs.
This is what is called 'g'milut hasadim',
acts which one does with one's person [as opposed to those one does with one's
money], [and] which have no set minimum or maximum [see Mishnah Peah 1:1].
Although these are rabbinic commandments [i.e., commandments ordained by the
rabbis], they are included in the Biblical commandment "You shall love
your fellow person as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). Everything that you
want others to do for you, do for anyone who is your brother [in that he is
similarly obligated] by the Torah and the commandments." (Mishneh Torah,
Laws of Mourners, chapter 14.)
How is one to act on this principle? Maimonides' "do
for others…" principle implies a high degree of concern not only for
others' physical welfare, but also for their feelings and dignity. In such acts
as visiting the sick or comforting mourners, one shows concern for those in
emotional distress.
Providing for a bride's material needs for her wedding and
"gladdening a bride and groom" at their wedding celebration ensure
that the bride and groom know that the community wants them to have a happy
start in married life.
In "bearing the bier on one's shoulder" and in
"going before the coffin," one shows concern for the deceased's
dignity, as one does in other aspects of attending to the needs of the
deceased: preparing the body for burial, providing constant attendants until
the funeral, and even, in some communities, asking forgiveness for those who
did these things if any indignity was caused to the deceased.
Providing for the needy and homeless, too, must be done in a
way that shows concern for the recipients' feelings, not only for their
financial need. "Rabbi Yannai saw a man give money to a poor person in
public. Rabbi Yannai said: It would have been better for you not to give him
money than to give him money and embarrass him" (BT, Hagigah, 5a). Maimonides writes that one should give to
the poor "with a pleasant expression and happily, while commiserating with
the needy person about his suffering…If a needy person asks for money and one
has nothing to give him, one should make him feel better by speaking nicely
with him." (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor, chapter 10)..
A Talmudic statement (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 14a) offers a
different rationale for the preoccupation with social welfare. Rather than
emphasizing brotherhood, this passage sees concern for social welfare as
deriving from the commandment to emulate God: "Rabbi Hama, son of Rabbi
Hanina taught: How can one 'walk in the ways of God' (as Deuteronomy 13:5
demands)? …One should emulate the traits demonstrated in His actions. Just as
He clothes the naked (citing Genesis 3:21, in which God is said to clothe Adam
and Eve), so must you clothe the naked. Just as He visits the sick (citing Gen
18:1 in which God is said to visit Abraham after his circumcision), so must you
visit the sick. God buried the dead (citing Deuteronomy 34:6, where God is said
to bury Moses), so must you bury the dead."
