Judaism and the Poor

 
Proverbs 21:13: “If you refuse to listen to the cry of the poor, your own cry 
for help will not be heard.” 
 
For as long as I have been a social and political activist, I have believed in 
the importance of tending to the poor, but I wasn’t sure that my own religion, 
Judaism, cared about the poor. But the above verse, found in Proverbs, part of 
the Old Testament of the Bible, reassures me that Jews, too, are obliged to tend 
to the poor and oppressed. As a result, I feel vindicated in my life’s obsession 
with social justice and I feel more Jewish than ever. 
 
And I now believe that the New Testament is an extension of the Old: it improves 
upon the Old by asking humanity to focus on and tend to the vulnerable. Jesus 
may not be my savior, but I certainly see him as a brilliant and revolutionary 
prophet. 
 
I conclude by saying that whether one is a Jew or Gentile , he/she should read 
both parts of the Bible and read other religious tracts in order to improve 
himself intellectually and spiritually.