(6) Yea, He saith: ‘It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be My servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the offspring of Israel; I will also give thee for a light of the nations, That My salvation may be unto the end of the earth.’
Deuteronomy Parsha Re'eh Perek Fifteen
When there is a needy person amongst you from one of your brothers in one of your gates in your land, which Hashem your God gives to you, do not harden your heart and do not pass your hand from your brother the needy.
Rashi and Sifre: A destitute person ... any of your brethren in any of your cities, in the Land. From the beginning of this verse, the Sages derive the order of priorities one should follow in dispensing charity. First comes a destitute person, someone who is desperately poor; next is your brethren, i.e., the closer the relative, the greater the obligation; next is in any of your cities, i.e., the poor of your own city come before others; and finally, in the Land, for the poor of Eretz Yisrael come before those of other lands.
Talmud Yerushalmi
It was taught: a city that has Jews and gentiles, we appoint a gabbai for the gentiles and a gabbai for Israel, and they collect for the gentiles and for Israel, and they sustain the poor gentiles and the poor of Israel, and visit the gentile sick and the Israelite sick, and bury the gentile dead and the Israelite dead, and comfort the gentile mourners and the Israelite mourners, and wash the clothes of gentiles and the clothes of Israel due to the ways of peace.
Joan Nestle on Isaiah 49:6
I know that all over this world, queers are fighting for human rights, that older Jewish queers, along with others, are desperately concerned with social issues such as health care and decent housing, that funding for queer, atheistic, socialistic artists is at an all time low. Now I look to the struggles for the rights of indigenous peoples, for the fair sharing of the world’s resources, for the global recognition of the rights of women to be autonomous citizens of the world. No prophet calls us to these concerns. In my mind’s eye, I still see the flaming young women throwing themselves out of the burning factory building… In their honor, at their insistence, in the name of secular, sexual freedom, I join with all the others of the world, who are demanding that systems of power bend to human needs.