rule of labour is
enforced (_Ap. Const._ ii. 63). If a stranger settle (_Didache_, xii. 3)
among the brotherhood, "let him work and eat." And the father
(_Constit._ iv. 11) is to teach the children "such trades as are
agreeable and suitable to their need." And the charities to the widow,
the fatherless, are organized on Jewish lines.

2. The sources of relief among the Jews were the three gifts of corn:
(1) the corners of the field (cf. Lev. xix. &c.), amounting to a
sixtieth part of it; (2) the gleanings, a definite minimum dropped in
the process of reaping (Maimonides, _Laws of the Hebrews relating to the
Poor_, iv. 1); (3) corn overlooked and left behind. So it was with the
grapes and with all crops that were harvested, as opposed, e.g. to
figs, that were gathered from time to time. These gifts were divisible
three times in the day, so as to suit the convenience of the poor (Maim.
ii. 17), and the poor had a right to them. They are indeed a poor-rate
paid in kind such as in early times would naturally spring up among an
agricultural people. Another gift "out of the seed of the earth," is the
tithe. In the post-exilian period the septenniad was in force. Each year
a fiftieth part of the produce (Maim. vi. 2, and Deut. xviii. 4) was
given to the priest (the class which in the Jewish state was supported
by the community). Of the remainder one-tenth went to the Levite, and
one-tenth in three years of the septennium was retained for pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, in two given to the poor. In the seventh year "all things
were in common." Supplementing these gifts were alms to all who asked;
"and he who gave less than a tenth of his means was a man of evil eye"
(Maim. vii. 5). All were to give alms, even the poor themselves who were
in receipt of relief. Refusal might be punished with stripes at the hand
of the Sanhedrim. At the Temple alms for distribution to the worthy poor
were placed by worshippers in the cell of silence; and it is said that
in Palestine at meal times the table was open to all comers. As the
synagogues extended, and possibly after the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70),
the collections of alms was further systematized. There were two
collections. In each city alms of the box or chest (_kupha_) were
collected for the poor of the city on each Sabbath eve (later, monthly
or thrice a year), and distributed in money or food for seven days. Two
collected, three distributed. Three others gathered and distributed
daily alms