Re: Alyssa Sonnenblick's post on what Ben Shapiro said at YU concerning the poor in the Torah. While not having heard that presentation, if Shapiro said that the Torah “explicitly†states that “poor people should not be preferred over rich people,†he may have been referring to Exodus 23:3, "You shall not show deference to a poor person in his dispute," and Leviticus 19:5, "You shall not render an unfair judgment. Do not show favor to the poor or deference to the rich." However, Shapiro ignores not only Exodus 23:6 (similarly, Deuteronomy 24:17,19), "You shall not subvert the rights of the needy in his dispute," but also disregards the numerous mitzvot on behalf of the poor to provide them with prompt payment for labor, free loans, return of pledged clothing by nightfall, food, redemption of property, redemption from debt-slavery, enjoyment of feasts, the right to give less expensive sacrifices, and, of course, rest on Shabbat and holidays. The Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job have many passages reinforcing the Torah's concerns.
For further information on the Tanakh's emphasis on socio-religious justice, please see the chapter on "providing for the disadvantaged" in my book Justice for All: How the Jewish Bible Revolutionized Ethics, available soon from the Jewish Publication Society via: [
jps.org] .
Respectfully,
Jeremiah Unterman
