There is a longish but excellent article over at the Social Affairs Unit discussing "Wealth and Poverty: A Jewish Analysis." For those interested in what the Church should do about poverty and social justice, there is much to digest here. Note that the author writes A Jewish Analysis, not The Jewish Analysis. Christians writing on the same topic tend to be less humble, claiming to know what The Biblical Answer is.
The POV is at 45 degrees to our usual discussions in the Church, which tend to break down along left/right lines. It is important to notice that several of his major points are in sharp contrast to things that Jesus said, and a Chrisitan interpretation would contradict at those places. Still, there is a lot of common ground and common language, and several thoughts I had not encountered before. An excerpt from the essay, quoting Maimonides
Charity is not justified by the good it does to the soul of the giver, but by the degree to which it removes the misery of the recipient, physical and more especially psychological. An act which enables him not to need charity is higher than any charity.
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' The rabbis define the poor, for practical purposes, both as those below subsistence level and those whose income has substantially fallen, but there is no egalitarian concept of poverty as having less than others, no relative poverty in the socialist sense. Nor is income redistribution to the poor the only or even the most important means by which Judaism would have them helped - it also makes them identical to the rich in terms of religious practice, the Law and the Sabbath. Further, the rabbinic tradition is a tradition for all the Jewish people - an impartial tradition - not a side-taking tradition. "…the one thing Judaism rules out ab initio, by specific Biblical command, is a bias to the poor." '
Taking from one child and giving to another is a severe punishment, and guaranteed to generate robust resentment.
The British have always had a lively sympathy for those who have fallen in status. In that vein, I remember recently reading of a saint who was criticized for giving alms to a "rich" man, whom, it later turned out, had lost his fortune and was going hungry.
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