[293] Makkoth, fol. 11 A. Berakhoth, foll. 19 A, 56 A.
[294] Proverbs, xxvi. 2.
[295] Genesis, xxvii. 23 sqq.
[296] Cf. Cheyne, ‘Blessings and Curses,’ in Encyclopædia Biblica, i. 592.
[297] Psalms, xxxvii. 26.
[298] Constitutiones Apostolicæ, iv. 6. Cf. Jeremiah, vii. 16.
[299] Cf. Cheyne, in Encyclopædia Biblica, i. 592; Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie, i. 29 sqq.
[300] Proverbs, xxii. 23.
The chief cause, however, of the extraordinary stress which the higher religions put on the duty of charity seems to lie in the connection between almsgiving and sacrifice. When food is offered as a tribute to a god, the god is supposed to enjoy its spiritual part only, whilst the substance of it is left behind and is eaten by the poor. And when the offering is continued in ceremonial survival in spite of the growing conviction that, after all, the deity does not need and cannot profit by it,[301] the poor become the natural heirs of the god, and the almsgiver inherits the merit of the sacrificer. The chief virtue of the act, then, lies in the self-abnegation of the donor, and its efficacy is measured by the “sacrifice” which it costs him.