להזמין עניים לסעודהThe Pauper at the Wedding

le-hazmin 'aniyyim la-se'udahIn Gamatria ↗

Seat the poor man first; he may be the one who decides.

At a feast for a mitzvah, invite the poor. Kaidanover says Satan accused Abraham because no poor man sat at the feast for Isaac's weaning, and the binding followed; Job's feasts went the same way. He retells a story from the Tanḥuma: a rich man's daughter lost three husbands on their wedding nights. A poor nephew, who sold wood to feed ten children, made his uncle swear to give her to him. Under the canopy Elijah, as an old man, told him to seat a pauper beyond any other in his own place. The pauper was the angel of death. He refused a year, a month, a week, but let the groom take leave. The bride argued that the Torah frees a new husband for a year. The angel asked above, and the groom lived.

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