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A Prayer Of The Poor Person

The 26th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Dovid Halevi Segal, author of Turei Zahav (the Taz) (1586-1667), son-in-law of the Bach. Born in Cracow. Unofficial Rabbi of Posen 1619-~1640. Headed famous yeshiva at Ostro from 1643, escaped Cossacks 1648-49 to Lublin, then Moravia. Settled in Lemberg (Lvov). Lost 2 sons to violent deaths in Spring of 1664. Sent his son Yeshaya and son-in-law Aryeh Leib (later to be the Shaagas Aryeh) to investigate Shabsai Tzvi. He also wrote Divrei Dovid on Rashi al HaTorah.

“When you lend money to My people, to the poor person who is with you, do not act toward him as a creditor.” (Exodus 22:24)


The Talmud rules that if two people, a poor person and a wealthy man, approach you for a loan, you should first lend money to the poor person.


While this may seem obvious, there is actually a reason we need this specific instruction: A wealthy man is usually hesitant to ask for a loan, which is not true about a poor person who is more desperate. We may therefore think that we should first lend to the wealthy person.


Therefore, the Talmud had to remind us that the poor person still comes first.


By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

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  1. Partners In Prayer InsightsFebruary 9, 2021 at 9:06 AM

    This seems to be consistent with the the concept of Hashem accepting the Prayer of the Poor person first.

    ReplyDelete

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