People are entitled to receive help from others only if they do what they can to help themselves first. Thus, Exodus 23:5 rules that “When you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.” The obvious implication of the words “with him” is that the animal’s owner must work with the passerby to help raise the animal. But, notes Rabbi Avrohom Feuer, “If the owner. . .refuses to do so because he expects the passerby to do it himself because it is a mitzvah, the passerby is excused...” (see Mishnah Bava Mezia 2:10). Basing himself on this Torah verse, Rabbi Ephraim of Luntshits (1550-1619) teaches that “we may derive an application of this idea to the poor among our people who impose themselves on the community by refusing to work though they are able. They cry that we do not supply them with their needs, but they are wrong. God did not command us to help them in those situations where they can help themselves.”
In short, poor people should not refuse gainful employment they are capable of performing. Only if someone makes the efforts to support himself and fails is the community and its members obliged to support him.
Code of Jewish Ethics vol. 2, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pg. 244-245
