Although the Rabbis continually emphasize that the money spent to help the needy will be repaid by increased prosperity, they do not fail to urge that true charity should be done for its own sake.
The principle "Be not like servants who minister to their master upon the condition of receiving a reward" ( is applied also to moral duties. Thus they draw a sharp line of demarcation between benevolence and mere alms giving, and distinguish them in the following manner: "In three respects is benevolence greater than alms giving. The latter can only be performed with money, the former personally as well as with money; the latter can be given to the poor alone, the former to rich and poor alike; the latter only to the living, the former also to the dead"