How does judging whether others deserve help affect how I am judged?

Rabbi Landau teaches that “the moment you stand over someone, calculating whether he deserves your help, you have just set a standard by which you yourself will be judged.” The measure you use on the poor man becomes the measure used on you.

Think about what you are asking for, he says. You want God to give you things beyond what you deserve: health, children who turn out okay, protection and blessings you didn't build. You are not asking to be judged on merit. You want “the hand that opens, not because you were perfect, but because He's generous.”

So the way you treat someone holding out his hand is not only about him. We are not running a merit system; we are creating a world where people receive beyond what they earn, and “we need to live in this world because we are in it too.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

The standard you use to judge someone in need is the standard you set for yourself.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that when you calculate over the poor man, you think you are dealing with him, but you are dealing with yourself.

Deepest human truth

Every person depends on receiving more than he earned. Giving that way builds the world we ourselves live in.

More questions from this teaching

• Should I give charity to someone who may not deserve it?