"What would you do with $100? Conversations about tzedakah decision making"

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corners of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Adonai your God. [JPS translation]

When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow -- in order that Adonai your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat down the fruit of your olive trees, do not go over them again; that shall go to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not pick it over again; that shall go to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment. [JPS translation edited for gender-neutrality]

Everyone is obligated to give tzedakah. Even people supported by tzedakah must contribute from what they will receive. Anyone who refuses to give [tzedakah] or who gives less than what he should give, the court pressures him until he gives the amount he has been assessed. The court may confiscate his possessions and deduct from them an appropriate amount [for tzedakah]. They may seize possessions worth the value of the pledge, even on Friday afternoon. [AJWS translation]

R. Joseph learned: "If you lend money to any of my people that are poor with you" [this teaches, if the choice lies between]

a Jew and a non-Jew, a Jew has preference; the poor or the rich the poor takes precedence; your poor [i.e. your relatives] and the [general] poor of your town, your poor come first; the poor of your city and the poor of another town the poor of your own town have prior rights. [Soncino translation]

Our Rabbis taught: We sustain the non-Jewish poor with the Jewish poor, visit the non-Jewish sick with the Jewish sick, and bury the non-Jewish dead with the Jewish dead, for the sake of peace. [AJWS translation]

A poor relative takes precedence over all men; the poor of his household before the poor of his city; the poor of his town before the poor of another town; as it says: ‘to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy in your land' (Deuteronomy 15:11)