Gleaning vs welfare

Lev 23:22 'When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God.' "


So for one I am actually going to praise Levitical law (The law of the ancient hebrews if your lost) h as still relevant in our society. Well actually I'm just going o look at the pros of this system in comparison to our own welfare system and rant on a bit and hopefully make some decent points (especially because no research was done for this entry... i have enough readings with exams).
So basically what Levitical law did here is it provided for those who were in need by having those who had a lot (or those who owned land) not be stingy. Since the landowners would have been used to this system they wouldn't have missed that little bit that they would have had to go back for, similar to how since we are used to having income tax taken off our paychecks we don't really miss that extra bit. So in terms of where they get their resources to care for the poor its pretty much the same. The more you make or comparatively how much land you own the more you are expected/ required to give.
The difference between gleaning and welfare becomes present in how those in need receive their aid. With welfare those in need are identified and given aid. The cheque comes in the mail, they are given just enough so that if they budget well they will just make it through the month until the next months cheque. With Gleaning those in need still have to work for their aid. They still have to leave the house and go out into the field to gather up what they can to live off of. I assume life would still be tough and they would have to budget the same as with welfare, but I find that they have to take a more active role in the receiving of the aid.
I believe this to be a strength of this system. I have seen our walfare system abused, where people work full tiem jobs under the table and still get welfare as they are trying to cheat the system, i have also seen unemployment insurance and welfare be abused so that people can just be lazy. I don't think this would have been so, or at least less likely in the gleaning system.
of course the gleaning system would also have had its problems with some of those in need being greedy and taking more than their fare share of what was left for the alien and needy.
Both ways there are problems and strengths. I don't know what system is better but I think that its still valuabel to look at both systems as we figure out how to provide for those in need around us and also in how we provide aid for foreign nations....


and ya thats it.... really just a random train of thought i had earlier while in greek
peace