The Poor Will Never Disappear

“For the poor will never disappear from within the land.” A Puzzle In the Torah portion of Re’eh it says: “For the poor will never disappear from within the land.” Right after that comes the command to open your hand to the poor and the needy. This should make us wonder. If it is decided that the poor will never disappear from the world, what good is charity? If poverty is a fixed fact of the world’s economy that can never change, why command us to help? The ocean of need will never be filled anyway. So we have to say that the verse is not an economic forecast at all. It is a very different kind of insight. It is an insight into the nature of the inner self. Rich and Poor Are Inner States Young married man, ask yourself this: What happens if you give two million shekels to someone who is drowning in debt? Sometimes within a year, sometimes within a week, he is back where he started. And what happens if you take away everything a rich man owns? Before long he is on top again, building again, creating again. Why? Because being rich or poor is not a matter of numbers in a bank account. It is the shape of a person’s inner self. It is his inner nature, the inner “wiring” of his soul. The poor man who received millions did not change on the inside. So the world around him went back to mirroring that same inner self. The rich man who lost everything stayed the same on the inside. So his outer world also went back to mirroring who he is. This is a deep principle in the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement: “An awakening from below awakens an awakening from above.” The reality inside you is the force that draws and shapes the reality outside you. The outer world does not stand on its own. It is a reflection. A Poor Mind and a Rich Mind The Mishnah, an early collection of the Sages’ teachings, says: “Who is rich? The one who is happy with his share.” At first glance this is puzzling. If the rich man is the one who is happy with his share, why couldn’t a poor man also be called “happy with his share”? The Mishnah is teaching us something. True wealth is not owning a lot. It is an inner state of plenty and fullness. It is the feeling deep inside that you have, that you are whole, that you have something to give. And no one feels this way because he has a lot of money. He feels this way because that is how his inner self is built. Poverty is the opposite. The Hebrew word the Torah uses here for a needy person is related to the cry “Woe is him!” Poverty is a mind that lives in lack. It is the state of someone who only takes. He has no power to give and no fullness inside. As King Solomon wrote: “It is Hashem’s blessing that makes a person rich.” True blessing is blessing that stays connected to its source. It does not flow into the outer vessel unless there is a fitting inner vessel ready to receive it. Something New: “From Within the Land” Here is the heart of this essay. Look closely at the exact words of the verse: “The poor will never disappear from within the land.” It does not say “from the land,” meaning from the physical world. It says “from within the land.” It means from within our earthiness, from deep inside a person. “Land” here hints at earthiness. That is the pull of the animal soul, which always leans toward feeling that something is missing, toward worry, toward shrinking back. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches us that the animal soul is rooted in the four physical elements. By its nature the animal soul feels lack. It sees what is not there. It lives in the mindset of “Woe is him!” So the verse is saying this: the feeling of lack, the “poor man” inside, will never disappear “from within the land.” It will never leave the depths of the earthy soul. This is not a decree about the world’s economy. It is an insight into the spiritual state of the inner self. That is why, right after this insight, the Torah commands: “Open your hand.” The answer to inner lack is opening your hand, the movement of giving. Charity is not only help for the poor man outside of you. Most of all, it is healing for the poor man inside of you. It turns a taker into a giver.