A merchant once came to
Rabbi Moses, the Rabbi of Pressberg, known for his magnum opus as the Chatam Sofer,
and asked the rabbi’s blessing for his business. Rabbi Moses said to him: ‘I heard that your
brother is very poor man and you aren’t helping him.’ The merchant justified himself: ‘My business isn’t doing well, and I can not
afford to help my brother now.” Rabbi Moses answered him, ‘It states in the
Torah: “I too have heard the sighs of the children of Israel whom Egypt is
enslaving.” We know that the word, too, is meant to be inclusive. What does it include here? This teaches us
that even though all the Jews were enslaved, and that each one sighed for his
own sorrows, nevertheless all heard the sighs of their brothers and felt their
distress. It was because of this that God, too, come heard their sighs.” - Rabbi Menachem HaCohen
Heed the cries of the needy.
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