| From our Sages on the Parshah |
Turnusrufus asked Rabbi Akiva: "If your G-d loves the poor, why doesn't
He feed them?"
Said [Rabbi Akiva] to him: "So that we should be saved from purgatory
(in the merit of the charity we give)."
Said he to him: "On the contrary: for this you deserve to be punished.
I'll give you an analogy: A king got angry at his slave
and locked him away in a dungeon, and commanded that he not be given to eat or
to drink; and a person came along and fed the slave. When the
king hears of this, is he not angry at that person...?"
Said Rabbi Akiva to him: "I'll give you an analogy: A king got angry at his child
and locked him away in a dungeon, and commanded that he not be given to eat
or to drink; and a person fed the king's child. When the king hears of this, does he not reward
that person...?
(Talmud, Bava Batra 10a) |
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