Tzedakah: Aspiring to a Higher Ethic

the“big ones”]."* Insufficient attention has been paid to this statement. The tradition has normatively understood this instruction to apply to the court system. Thus, Rashi specifies— based on the midrash— that one should not say,“This man is rich: he is the son of great men; how can I disgrace him?”"* As Sefer HaHinukh explains,

This means, then, that he should not honor him more than his opponent at the

trial, who is not as great as he. It is therefore stated, nor shall you favor the

person of the great

Among the laws of the precept, there 1s what the Sages of blessed memory taught: that one[of the parties to the lawsuit] should not sit and the other stand, but rather both should stand."®

From a narrow reading of the Torah’s context, it is easy to understand why the oral tradition emphasized the legal milieu when discussing this mitzvah. For the injunction not to favor the rich comes in the midst of a variety of directives, and those that are proximate to the statement under consideration do indeed seem to relate to the Judicial process:

You shall not curse the deaf, and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God — I am the Lord. You shall not commit a perversion of justice; you shall not favor the poor and you shall not honor the great; with righteousness shall you judge your fellow. You shall not be a gossipmonger among your people, you shall not stand aside while your fellow’s blood is shed— I am the Lord."

It becomes clear, then, from a broader view of the context, that while justice is certainly the object of the passage, it is not merely courtroom justice that is intended. Indeed, these verses, occurring as they do within the so-called Holiness Code of Leviticus 19, are really Part of a series of regulations designed to elevate human Interrelationships in a wide range of circumstances. Justice, they demand, is to be extended far beyond the legal process. It is supposed to permeate areas of social interaction thoroughly, such that one’s Speech and actions are fully oriented toward demonstrating that one truly aspires to the lofty goal of“loving your fellow as yourself.”"*

Consequently, perhaps a rigorous reading of Leviticus 19:15 should lead us to conclude that not favoring the poor and not