Les Proverbes 22:7 Midrash : Bereshit Rabbati, Shemot Rabbah & Vayikra Rabbah

(Genesis 45:8) "So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh." I am like a creditor to him, as it is stated (Exodus 22:24), "Do not impose interest upon him." Just as the way of a creditor is to lend to a borrower (Proverbs 22:7), in the book of Rabbi Meir, it is written, "And he has made me a father," as it says, "which the Lord, your God, gives you" (Deuteronomy 15:2). This is a legal judgment derived from the full texts written in the Torah, which emerged from Jerusalem during the Sabbatical year and ascended to Rome, and the scrolls were stored in the synagogue of Asvyros. "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). "For a man and his wife, leather tunics" (Genesis 3:21). "I will descend now and see their outcry" (Genesis 18:21). "The Lord who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth" (Genesis 24:7). "And he sold his birthright" (Genesis 25:33). "Behold, now, I am old; I do not know the day of my death" (Genesis 27:2). "The fragrance of a field that the Lord has blessed" (Genesis 27:27). "And Oholibamah bore Jeush" (Genesis 36:5). "Eliphaz, the son of Esau" (Genesis 36:10). "These were the sons of Oholibamah, the wife of Esau" (Genesis 36:14). "They arose and went down to Egypt" (Genesis 43:15). "And I buried her there on the way" (Genesis 48:7).And he has made me a father to Pharaoh." And here are the names that came down to Egypt (Genesis 46:8). "So shall you say to the children of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel" (Exodus 19:3). "The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses" (Exodus 12:37). "For it is a sign between Me" (Exodus 31:13). "Five for the planks on one side" (Exodus 26:27). "We have no barricade against it." "And the priest shall take from its blood" (Leviticus 4:34), for if it is a lamb. "And when the zav becomes purified with living water" (Leviticus 15:13). "One lamb of the first year without blemish" (Leviticus 14:10). "All who come to join the ranks must be counted in their census" (Numbers 4:3). "From the first of your dough, you shall give" (Numbers 15:20). "Avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel" (Numbers 31:2). "And they came to Moses and to the congregation of the children of Israel" (Numbers 12:1). "The heads of the families of the house of Joseph approached" (Numbers 36:1). "But I have not the power to go up" (Deuteronomy 1:26). "And they shall inherit it, they and all the people of the land" (Numbers 32:22). "To give us into the hands of the Amorites" (Deuteronomy 1:27). "Nor take a mother upon her young" (Deuteronomy 22:6). "Brimstone and salt burning" (Deuteronomy 29:22). "Like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah" (Deuteronomy 29:22). "I said, I would scatter them" (Deuteronomy 32:26). So they are written in the Torah that emerged from Jerusalem.

Another matter, “you shall not be as a creditor to him,” that is what is written: “One who cares for the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay his reward.” (Proverbs 19:17). To what extent? “A borrower is a servant to a man who lends” (Proverbs 22:7).
Another matter, “to the poor who is with you,” there is nothing in the world as harsh as poverty, as it is harsher than all the suffering in the world. Our Rabbis said: All forms of suffering on one side, and poverty on the other. If it is your wish to know, come and see: When the accuser was denouncing Job to the Holy One blessed be He and saying to Him: ‘You gave him money and children and You protect them, as it is stated: “[Satan answered the Lord…] Have You not sheltered him, his household, and everything that is his?” (Job 1:9-10), and it says: “Is it for nothing that Job reveres God?” (Job 1:9); “however, extend Your hand now”’ (Job 1:11), the Holy One blessed be He said to [Job]: ‘What do you prefer, poverty or suffering?’ Job said to Him: ‘Master of the universe, I accept upon myself all the suffering in the world, but not poverty, for when I go out to the marketplace and I do not have in my possession a peruta with which to purchase, what will I eat?’ After he suffered, what is written? He began railing against the attribute of justice, as it is stated: “If only I could know and find Him” (Job 23:3). Elihu said to him: ‘Why are you shouting? Did you not say that you do not seek poverty, but rather, suffering? Was it not you who chose the suffering, as it is stated: “Beware, do not turn to injustice, for you have chosen this over poverty”?’ (Job 36:21). Thus, poverty is harsher than all types of suffering. That is why it is stated: “To the poor who is with you.” The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Is his poverty not enough, such that you are taking interest from him?’ That is, “to the poor who is with you.”

Another matter, “if your brother will become poor” – that is what is written: “He who cares for the poor lends to the Lord” (Proverbs 19:17). Rabbi Elazar said: It is written: “He gives food to all flesh” (Psalms 136:25). This one³The individual who supported the poor. came and snatched the mitzva from Him. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘It is incumbent upon Me to pay him his reward.’ That is what is written: “And He will pay his reward” (Proverbs 19:17). Rabbi Tanḥuma said it in the name of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, Rabbi Naḥman said it in the name of Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon, and the Rabbis in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Were the verse not written, it would be impossible to say it. As it were, it is the way of a borrower to be a servant to the lender. That is what is written: “A borrower is a servant to a man who lends” (Proverbs 22:7).⁴Thus, given that the verse states that “he who cares for the poor lends to the Lord,” it is as though God were his servant. Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Reuven: Anyone who gives a peruta to a poor man, the Holy One blessed be He gives him perutot. Is it a peruta that he is giving him?I Is he not giving him his very soul? How so? If a loaf was worth ten perutot and a poor man was standing in the marketplace and he had only nine, if one comes and gives him a peruta and he acquires a loaf and eats it, his soul is thereby calmed. The Holy One blessed be He says to him: ‘You, too, when your soul cries out to leave the body, I will return it to you.’ Therefore, Moses cautions them: “If your brother will become poor.”