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Over the course of Jewish history, different attitudes have been held towards poverty and wealth. Unlike Christianity, in which some strands have viewed poverty as virtuous and desirable, Jews have generally viewed poverty negatively. Jacobs and Greer assert that "()n general, Jewish texts have portrayed poverty as an unjustifiable burden." In contrast to the consistently negative view of poverty, Kravitz and Olitzky describe a rapidly changing attitude towards acceptance of wealth as desirable as the Hebrews transitioned from being nomadic shepherds to farmers and ultimately to city dwellers. In ''Kol ben Levi'', the author writes, "There are two trials before the individual: the test of wealth and the test of poverty... Both are difficult... but the test of wealth is greater than (the test of) poverty."〔Kol ben Levi〕 Cosimo Perrotta points out that servile and hired work was not scorned by the Jews of the Old Testament. Instead, such work was protected by biblical commandments to pay workers on time and not to cheat them. ==Poverty== Ronald Eisenberg writes that, unlike the classical Christian view, "the Rabbis saw no virtue in poverty." Lifshitz asserts that, "very rarely in Judaism is poverty associated with righteousness." Instead of being considered virtuous and desirable, poverty was viewed as "pointless suffering." Similarly, Cosimo Perrotta points out that poverty is not admired nor is it considered a positive value by the writers of the Tanakh. However, Ethics of the Fathers states: "Such is the way of Torah: Bread with salt you shall eat, water in small measure you shall drink, and upon the ground you shall sleep; live a life of deprivation and toil in Torah. If so you do, "fortunate are you, and good is to you" (Psalms 128:2): fortunate are you in this world, and it is good to you in the World To Come." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jewish views of poverty, wealth and charity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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