Another matter, “if your brother will become poor” – that is what is written: “He who cares for the poor lends to the Lord” (Proverbs 19:17). Rabbi Elazar said: It is written: “He gives food to all flesh” (Psalms 136:25). This one3The individual who supported the poor. came and snatched the mitzva from Him. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘It is incumbent upon Me to pay him his reward.’
That is what is written: “And He will pay his reward” (Proverbs 19:17). Rabbi Tanḥuma said it in the name of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, Rabbi Naḥman said it in the name of Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon, and the Rabbis in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Were the verse not written, it would be impossible to say it. As it were, it is the way of a borrower to be a servant to the lender. That is what is written: “A borrower is a servant to a man who lends” (Proverbs 22:7).4Thus, given that the verse states that “he who cares for the poor lends to the Lord,” it is as though God were his servant.
Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Reuven: Anyone who gives a peruta to a poor man, the Holy One blessed be He gives him perutot. Is it a peruta that he is giving him?I Is he not giving him his very soul? How so? If a loaf was worth ten perutot and a poor man was standing in the marketplace and he had only nine, if one comes and gives him a peruta and he acquires a loaf and eats it, his soul is thereby calmed.
The Holy One blessed be He says to him: ‘You, too, when your soul cries out to leave the body, I will return it to you.’ Therefore, Moses cautions them: “If your brother will become poor.”