Дварим 15:7 Комментарий: Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Or HaChaim & Rabbeinu Bahya

כי יהיה בך אביון IF THERE BE AMONG YOU A NEEDY MAN — The most needy has preference (Sifrei Devarim 116:4);

do not toughen your heart You must speak kind words to him.

כי יהיה בך אביון, "If there will be a destitute person amongst you, etc." Why does the Torah have to write בך, "amongst you," when it already wrote "amongst one of your brethren?" Perhaps Moses alluded to something we have learned in Baba Batra 10 where the Talmud said that the reason G'd chooses to afflict some people with economic hardship in this life is to afford their wealthier fellow Jews the opportunity to assist such a destitute person to support himself in dignity. The words בך אביון may be read together meaning: "on your account, i.e. for your sake," there will be a destitute person." The Torah writes מאחד אחיך, "amongst one of your brethren" to remind you not to evaluate people on the basis of their economic prosperity. The fact that he is destitute does not make him a lesser person, He is still your brother. This is quite independent of the explanation of our sages (Baba Metzia 71) that the reason the Torah mentions different levels of poverty is to teach you to attend first to the local poor before tending to those elsewhere.

מאחד אחיך ONE OF THY BRETHREN — thy brother on thy fathers side has preference over thy brother on thy mother’s side (Sifrei Devarim 116:5);