“If there will be a destitute person from among your brothers in your of your gates, in your land, which Hashem, your G-d, is giving, do not harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor, destitute brother.” (Devarim, 15:7)
The holy Ohr HaChaim teaches us that this pasuk hints to the one and only Moshiach, whose arrival we are awaiting, our king and savior, who is called “destitute” and is compared to a pauper in Zechariah’s prophecy (Chap. 9), where he is depicted as a poor man riding a donkey.
The pasuk, explains the Ohr HaChaim, hints at the reason behind why Moshiach shall be an impoverished man: The word becha, which normally translates to, "from among you," is read here instead as, “because of you,” the "you" here referring to our sins, which is what has lengthened our exile and drawn out the final redemption.
The Ohr HaChaim also interprets the word becha to mean, “because of you," but he explains in another way. In this explanation, Moshiach is called “destitute" since he is eagerly waiting for us to be worthy of redemption, so he can come and redeem us. Therefore, since he lacks this, his heart’s deep and strong desire, he is called impoverished.
The Ohr HaChaim tells us that Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi once met Moshiach, and he asked Rabbi Yehoshua regarding the welfare of Klal Yisroel. Rabbi Yehoshua responded that they are eagerly awaiting Moshiach’s anticipated arrival, and when Moshiach heard this, he burst into tears.
This is why the pasuk uses the term, “me’echad achecha" when it wants to say, “from among your brothers.” The Ohr HaChaim says that this hints at the “echad" — the unique one from among your brothers — as our rabbis taught (in Targum Yonason to Bereishis 26:10) that echad ha’am refers to the unique one, the ruler or king.
When the pasuk then refers to one of our gates as echad she’arecha, it refers to the unique leader of the Sanhedrin, whose head shall be the Moshiach, since no other teacher or judge is like him, as it says in Yeshaya, Chapter 11, that he shall “judge righteously, but not as others; he shall smell out the scent of fear of G-d”!
The Ohr HaChaim here also defines she’arecha as the Sanhedrin, just as in the verse in Devarim 25:7. Says the Ohr HaChaim further, that the words of our pasuk, “in our land,” refer to the conception and birth of Moshiach, which will take place in the holy land of Eretz Yisroel.
The Ohr HaChaim offers another reading of our pasuk, based on the Zohar Chadash in parshas Noach: “If one congregation or gathering shall awaken and repent and return to do teshuva, then Ben Dovid shall immediately arrive and come.” Says the Ohr HaChaim that the Moshiach is called an evyon; he is impoverished because he desires us to be worthy to be redeemed and he lacks this. “The land” in our pasuk, refers to Eretz Yisroel, which is the place he desires to redeem us, as we see from Zefania 3: "When can he come to the city of the dove, the desire and love of the heart and redeem us?
And so, Hashem commands each and every one of us to not harden our hearts, but rather strengthen ourselves to fulfill this desire of the one special, unique one from among us, the Moshiach, because his coming is dependant on our actions, especially tzedaka, as it says in Yeshaya, Chapter 54. “From your poor brothers” in our pasuk, is read as, “because of your brothers” is he poor and impoverished.
So let us keep in mind that all of our actions should all be to serve this one purpose: to hasten the coming of Moshiach Hashem, whose name is Chaim.
