Poverty and Charity in Early Judaism

Hellenistic and Roman writings featured few discussions of poverty, and rarely did they deal with caring for the poor. Instead, the poor were largely ignored or even despised. However, a number of biblical commandments address support for the poor, and the topic was of great concern to Hellenistic Jewish writers and to the early rabbis. Poverty is defined in m. Pe’ah 8:8 and y. Pe’ah 8:8–9, 21a–d, and Leviticus Rabbah 34 comments on the seemingly cyclical nature of poverty. Jewish writers elaborated on two ways to help the poor: through harvest gifts and through charity. The first is directly derived from the biblical tradition, where Leviticus 19:9–10, Deuteronomy 24:19–21, and other texts give clear instructions on leaving certain portions of the harvest for the poor to collect. These harvest-time allocations include the corner (pe’ah) of a field, gleanings (leket) that fall from the harvest, and fallen or underdeveloped grapes (peret and ‘olelot). These concepts were developed expansively by the rabbis, especially in Palestinian texts, as these laws were only applicable in the land of Israel.

The second approach to poverty relief was far more ambitious and would have greater long-term impact. This was the development of the concept of tzedakah, defined as providing material support to the poor without expecting compensation from the recipients. Whereas tzedakah meant simply “righteousness” in the Hebrew Bible, the term would begin to take on a second meaning as “almsgiving” or “charity” for Second Temple–era Jews, including Jesus. The concept of charity, understood as the preeminent act of righteousness, was expanded and developed by the rabbis, who then read it back into biblical references to tzedakah, elevating its importance and eventually making it a central tenet of Jewish ethics. Unlike harvest gifts, charity could be given in kind or in coin. It could be given individually or through communal philanthropic institutions such as the soup kitchen, or “charity plate,” which provided daily, immediate assistance to anyone, and the charity fund, or “charity basket,” which provided long-term support to locals.