Study Ketubot folio 68A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בטלי כסף או בטלי זהב? אמר: היינו דאמר רבי אלעזר: בואו ונחזיק טובה לרמאין, שאלמלא הן, היינו חוטאין בכל יום, שנאמר: ״וקרא עליך אל ה׳ והיה בך חטא״.
Silver, i.e., white, tablecloths [telei] or gold, i.e., colored, tablecloths? Clearly, then, they are not entitled to charity. R' Ḥanina said: This is what R' Elazar said: Come and let us appreciate the swindlers who ask for charity that they do not need, because were it not for them, who command our attention and receive our charity, we would be sinning every day in failing to properly support the truly poor, as it is stated: “Beware that there be not a base thought in your heart, saying: The 7th year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your needy brother, and you will not give him; and he cry to YHWH against you, and it be sin in you” (Deuteronomy 15:9). Because the swindlers take our money in the name of charity, we have an excuse of sorts for failing to fully meet the needs of the truly poor.
ותני רבי חייא בר רב מדיפתי, רבי יהושע בן קרחה אומר: כל המעלים עיניו מן הצדקה — כאילו עובד עבודה זרה. כתיב הכא: ״השמר לך פן יהיה דבר עם לבבך בליעל וגו׳״, וכתיב התם: ״יצאו אנשים בני בליעל״. מה להלן עבודה זרה, אף כאן עבודה זרה.
And R' Ḥiyya bar Rav of Difti taught: R' Yehoshua ben Korḥa says: With regard to anyone who averts his eyes from the obligation to give charity, it is as if he engages in idol worship. It is written here concerning charity: “Beware that there be not a base [beliya’al] thought in your heart…and you will not give him” (Deuteronomy 15:9), and it is written there concerning idolatry: “Certain base [beliya’al] fellows have gone out” (Deuteronomy 13:14). Just as there, in the latter verse, the word “base [beliya’al]” is referring to idol worship, so too here, this expression indicates a sin on the scale of idol worship.