In Chapter 19, we reach the verses that deal with charity, the reward the Holy One, blessed be He, pays the giver, and the education of a son. These two topics - giving to others and disciplining a child - are two foundations upon which a person's character depends: what one does with his wealth, and what one does with his son. Let us proceed in the order of the verses and examine the words of the commentators and the Malbim.
מַלְוֵה ה' חוֹנֵן דָּל וּגְמֻלוֹ יְשַׁלֶּם־לוֹ׃ (יז) - "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem, and He will repay him his reward." (17)
Rashi teaches us the immense power of a loan given to a pauper. When the lender himself, Heaven forbid, falls ill and is close to death - who advocates for him on the day of judgment? The charity he performed, the loan he gave to the poor man. And what does that charity argue in his favor? The pauper's soul was struggling to depart from hunger, and this man came along, sustained it, and restored it to his body. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I, too, shall restore his soul to him. A person who was already practically "of blessed memory" is defended by that act of charity - he showed favor to the poor, and the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I, too, will return his soul to him.
Rabbeinu Yonah explains that there is a double gain here. "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem" - the Holy One, blessed be He, repays his reward in this world: you gave a loan, and Hashem repays you. Hashem considers Himself the borrower, as it were; He is the One Who gives back to you and repays what you gave. Even so, "and He will repay him his reward" - although the Holy One, blessed be He, repaid your loan, this does not prevent Him from paying you the reward for the mitzvah itself. One might have thought: You lent? I paid you back; look, you lost nothing! But the verse tells you: No, know that you still have an additional reward waiting in the life of the World to Come.
This, says Rabbeinu Yonah, is what we learned in the Mishnah in Peah - that charity is among the things whose fruits a person consumes in this world, while the principal remains intact for the World to Come. Charity has both principal and fruits: it has a return here, and it has a reward for the life of the World to Come.
Notice the definition of "gemul" (recompense) that Rabbeinu Yonah teaches: gemul means giving beyond what you received. If I gave you something and you returned the exact same thing to me, one cannot say, "You bestowed gemul upon me." If I gave you a thousand shekels and you returned a thousand shekels, you did not bestow anything extra upon me; you merely returned it. Even if next time, when I was in need, you lent to me in turn, one could still argue that you merely repaid what I did for you: I gave to you when you had nothing, and you gave to me when I had nothing. True "gemul" occurs when I lent you a thousand, and next time you lend me two thousand. To bestow gemul means to give more than what was originally given.
Now see how wondrous this is: "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem" - the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, gives him the money back. Yet in this alone there is still no gemul: you received back whatever you gave. So where is the gemul? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I have an additional reward to give you in the World to Come - that is the gemul. Gemul is giving above and beyond what you gave.
The Vilna Gaon explains that when a person gives charity to the poor, he accomplishes two distinct things. First: money transferred from you to him. Second: you did him a favor - this person needed to eat, needed to purchase something urgently, and you performed an act of lovingkindness with him by granting him a loan. In exchange for the money you gave - "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem," the Holy One, blessed be He, will grant you wealth in return. But the act of lovingkindness you performed earns a reward of its own: "and He will repay him his reward" - for the kindness you did for the poor man. There is the monetary gift, and there is also the kindness of helping a person in urgent need, and that kindness carries its own distinct reward.
The Ralbag offers a wonderful explanation, which is also cited in other places in Chazal: one who is gracious to the poor is literally "a lender to Hashem." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Upon whom was the obligation to support this poor person? Upon Me, for I am the One who "opens Your hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing." The One who satisfies every living thing is the One who created man, and He is the One who, so to speak, undertook to nourish and sustain him. And behold, a person comes along and says: Master of the World, what You needed to do - I have now provided the money, I am giving in Your place, as it were. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: In the merit of your giving and doing what I was to do, I consider it as if you lent to Me. "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem."
Do you hear how wonderful this is? I was supposed to give to him, and you say: Master of the World, not, Heaven forbid, that it is difficult for You or that You are unable, but rather I will give - and I will merit the mitzvah. You, Master of the World, were meant to give, and I am, as it were, lending to You: to whomever You need to give - I will give. There is nothing greater than this, having done a favor, so to speak, for the Master of the World! Therefore, Hashem pays him his recompense and blesses him on account of this. And this is the reason the Holy One, blessed be He, grants blessing to the wealthy man - so that with what the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him, he can continue to do good for the poor person and bestow bounty upon him.
The Malbim explains that one who gives a gratuitous gift to the poor is like one who lends to Hashem - similar to what we saw in the Ralbag. And beyond the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, will repay you the debt, there is the dimension of gemul (recompense), and gemul, as we explained, is an addition - that which goes beyond the debt itself. And what is the extra factor here? That through this, you brought about love - the love of the poor person for his Creator. Until now, the poor person harbored a grievance: Master of the World, why did You not give to me? Why did You not provide for me? But because I went and lent to that poor person and gave him his livelihood, I generated closeness and love between him and the Master of the World. Now he says: Thank You, Master of the World, for sending so-and-so to me; thank You for taking care of me.
As it were, I connected the poor person to the Holy One, blessed be He. Until now there was conflict and a grievance between them, and now I went and brought them together. For this, says the Malbim, the Holy One, blessed be He, pays a reward far beyond the money given to the poor person. The money you gave - the Holy One, blessed be He, will reimburse you; but for having brought about love between the poor person and the Master of the World - for that you deserve recompense, and recompense is always greater. "He will repay him his recompense" - meaning, more than what you gave, beyond the debt itself.
The Malbim offers another explanation: What the rich person has in his hand with which to be gracious to the poor - where do you think you got it? Hashem lent it to you so that you would show favor to the poor. And this is what we have explained several times in the past: when the Holy One, blessed be He, makes a person wealthy, it means that within that wealth He also gave him the portion belonging to the poor. Seemingly, there appears to be an injustice in the distribution of property in the world - there are a few individuals who are multibillionaires, while there are entire continents of destitute people who need rice dropped to them from helicopters because otherwise they have nothing to eat, and it is terrible. But rather, what is the reality? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: What I gave to you, the rich person, is not yours. You are the bank. I deposited the poor person's account with you.
And what you must do is not act like those banks that conceal dormant accounts from heirs, but rather approach the heirs and say to them: "Sir, you have money here from your grandfather." That is to say: approach the poor person and say to him, "My friend, the Master of the World deposited your money with me; come and take it." Yet it is very difficult for a wealthy person to think in these terms. "What do you mean? This is my money! What do you mean it belongs to the poor man? I worked for it; let him work too!" - and the rich person answers impudently. He has become so accustomed to seeing the money in the bank that the money seems like his close friend, as if it was meant solely for him. A mistake, says the Malbim: "A lender to Hashem is one who is gracious to the poor" - Hashem lent you money so that you would be gracious to the poor.
We once told a story about Rav Yisrael Salanter, whose wife bought a lottery ticket. The moment he heard this, he said: "I take a vow disassociating myself from her property; if she wins, I have no share in it." They asked him: "What happened, Rebbe? After all, if she wins, there will be wealth, Baruch Hashem; one can distribute funds to the yeshivah, disseminate Torah - there are so many good things that can be done with money!" Rav Yisrael of Salant said to them: "Do you know what kind of accountability rests upon a person who possesses wealth? After one hundred and twenty years, I will have to arrive in Heaven, and they will say to me: 'Rav Yisrael, do you know that at the edge of your town there was a widow who had a child who did not attend Talmud Torah for several months because she had no money to pay?' And I will say: 'Yes, very interesting, very touching - but what does that have to do with me?' And they will tell me: 'What do you mean, what does it have to do with you? We placed her money with you! Where did your wealth come from? It is hers. Why did you not give it to her?' Do you know what a claim hangs over one who is rich? I do not want to be rich. It is an awesome claim."
If "one lends to Hashem" means that what Hashem gave you is merely a loan so that you would be gracious to the poor, then seemingly there is no basis at all to grant a reward to the rich person! After all, if I told you: "Take a thousand shekels and deliver it to David," and you took it and delivered it - what did you do? You are merely a courier! You were told to transfer a thousand shekels and you transferred it; does anyone need to thank you? Does anyone need to give you a reward? Rather, know this: Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, arrange it this way? So that you, the rich person, might be saved through this from Gehinnom, and you receive an immense reward. And this is the answer that Rabbi Akiva gave: If Hashem created the poor, why does He not sustain them Himself? In order that through them, we may merit and be saved from Gehinnom. The Holy One, blessed be He, wants us to merit a mitzvah through this.
And why is a reward truly deserved? Because there is a vast difference between the parable and reality. In the example given - take a thousand shekels and pass it to David - I thank you merely as a courier. But if I gave you a thousand shekels, and you lived with the feeling that it was already yours, and then suddenly you must transfer it to someone else - that is exceedingly difficult; it is like tearing flesh from one's body. For some people, parting with a hundred shekels is like pulling a wisdom tooth. In such situations, giving is genuinely hard, and therefore the Holy One, Blessed be He, says: I will grant you a recompense (gemul). Even though in truth you do not deserve it, since I lent it to you so that you would give it to him - nonetheless, since a person naturally feels that his money belongs to him, I am faithful to reward you for it.
The Malbim consistently explains a fundamental principle: "gemul" (recompense) is always connected to either love or enmity. Wherever the term gemul appears, it relates to love or hatred. Here too: according to the explanation presented, since you have aroused love, the recompense will be love from the Omnipresent. At other times, an act of gemul stems from enmity - "and will repay him his recompense."
יַסֵּר בִּנְךָ כִּי יֵשׁ תִּקְוָה וְאֶל הֲמִיתוֹ אַל תִּשָּׂא נַפְשֶׁךָ׃ (יח) - Chasten your son, for there is hope, and do not set your heart upon his death.
Ibn Ezra explains: "Chasten your son, for there is hope" - there is hope that he will live a long life when you discipline him. And "chasten" does not mean with a whip, but rather an expression of mussar: offer him moral guidance and instruction.
And what is the meaning of "and do not set your heart upon his death"? Ibn Ezra presents one explanation: "upon his death" - that he should kill others; "do not set your heart" - do not yearn or aspire for him to kill others. Now, why would such a warning be necessary? Because sometimes a son supports his father through criminal means: he kills others and thereby brings a livelihood to his father. This is what the verse is saying: do not set your heart on earning a living through your son's crimes; do not look forward to a livelihood that comes from him going out and harming others, killing others, and robbing others in order to sustain you.
Ibn Ezra offers another explanation: "Do not set your heart" away from him - that is, do not distance yourself from him and spare him mussar. And why? Because of what follows in the next verse:
גְּדׇל חֵמָה נֹשֵׂא עֹנֶשׁ כִּי אִם תַּצִּיל וְעוֹד תּוֹסִף׃ (יט) - A man of great wrath will bear punishment, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.
Because of his wrath, this person will bring about a situation in which he will be punished, as in the phrase "he shall bear his iniquity." Regarding this, the verse warns: do not step in to rescue him from the punishment he incurs, for if you rescue him once, you will have to rescue him again and again.
We find, then, that Scripture warns on two fronts: "Chasten your son" - and do not create a situation where you say, "I am washing my hands of him; I will not deal with him." Know that if you do so, you will raise a son who will be a "man of great wrath," and that man of great wrath will bear harsh punishment. Then comes the warning: "For if you rescue him" - beware, do not step in to save him, for if you rescue him, you will only have to keep doing so. If you bail him out once, they will ask you to bail him out again and again. But if he is locked up once and says, "Post my bail," tell him: "No, sir; from the very mud you got yourself into, pull yourself out." Do not rescue him, because if you rescue him, you will have to rescue him again and again later on.
In these verses, we have learned two fundamental principles. "One who is gracious to the poor lends to Hashem": one who gives to the poor is considered as though he is lending to the Holy One, Blessed is He - for it was incumbent upon the Creator to sustain him, and the wealthy person's money is merely a deposit placed in his trust to show favor to the pauper. Even so, the Holy One, Blessed is He, repays him the principal in this world and adds to it a "recompense" - a bonus beyond the debt, for the kindness he performed and for the love he fostered between the poor man and his Creator; and this principal endures for him in the World to Come. In tandem with this: "Discipline your son, for there is hope" - do not withhold discipline, for a child who is not properly guided will become a "man of great wrath" who incurs punishment, and then he can no longer be saved from himself - for if you rescue him once, you will only have to do so again.