BeHar

Rabbi David Silverberg cites the pasuk, "If your brother shall become impoverished…among you, you shall support him – even a foreigner or alien resident – so that your brother may live among you” (25:35). He then references the Midrash (Midrash Aggada to Parashat Kedoshim, cited in Torah Sheleima, #226), which points to the phrase, “ve-chei achikha imakh” (“your brother may live with you”) as the basis for this obligation. Rabbi Silverberg writes that a "farmer must set aside certain portions of his field and produce for the poor, because, the Midrash explains, 'it is said, ‘your brother shall live with you’ – for the Almighty did not bequeath the earth only to you.'"

He points out that “ve-chei achikha imakh” is written in the context of the prohibition of the prohibition of lending on interest, the next verse: “You shall not give him your money on interest…” He writes, wisely, that "this prohibition, too, likely stems from the concept that 'the Almighty did not bequeath the earth only to you.' When one grants a loan to an impoverished person on interest, he essentially capitalizes on the borrower’s disadvantaged situation. The absence of available funds enables the wealthy lender to earn profit by charging interest on a loan. If we live with a keen sense of 've-chei achikha imakh' – that all people are rightfully entitled to a share in God’s world – then our fellow’s state of destitution is a call to duty, rather than an opportunity for personal gain. The unfortunate occurrence of poverty demands that we give of our own accumulated resources to ensure that the impoverished can live comfortably with us, and should not be approached selfishly as an occasion for profitable loans."

His words brought to my mind a moshol of the Magid of Dubno. A King makes a banquet and someone complains that there is no setting /portion for them. The king assures the man that he put our a portion for everyone and if he is missing a his setting that someone else has too much...

For more thoughts on Behar/Bechukotai, see here.