In this short phrase in this week’s Torah portion, we find the social ethic at the heart of our Torah. It is a teaching I want to shout about from the roof tops. The Torah notices the poor in our society and commands us to take action. We are told that God will bless us and we will live a good life. In many ways this is true of us as British Jews, living in a land of security and wealth.  

But, we are told, poverty will still exist and if there is a needy person among us in one of our settlements, we must not harden our hearts or shut our hand against our ach, needy relative (15:7).  

We could debate who the Torah means by the word achicha, which literally translates as “your brother”. Are we only enjoined to help one of our own? Perhaps. But in the rich tradition of Jewish interpretation we could also understand this word to be a command in itself: to see the person before us, be that the rough sleeper on Oxford Road or the Big Issue seller on Deansgate, as our brother.
 
We should not harden our hearts against them, which is so easy to do. We need to be aware of our judgments and assumptions and instead see our shared humanity.  What would this mean in practice? Perhaps we can smile at the rough sleeper, have a conversation, or challenge our friends and family when we hear judgmental or prejudiced talk.  Our Torah tells us not to shut our hand — we must take action.  

Ours is not a passive, inward-looking religion. We must keep our hand open, whatever that means to us — setting up a direct debit to help a local homeless charity or taking part in a campaign.
 
Strangely this piece ends with the clause, “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land’ (15:11), which seems to contradict the verse above, “There shall be no needy” 

Here’s the constant tension before us. We must always reach for the Promised Land, for a world where injustice and poverty are eradicated, but we must also live in reality and take action in the world as it is.