I don’t know if one should or need not be embarrassed to take food stamps or other forms of government relief. But I know for sure that I would be embarrassed, ashamed, depressed and mortified if I were ever, Heaven forbid, so reduced to the point of needing such things. Moreover, I would be feel like a horrible Jew; one who does not fulfill the basic injunctions of “b’zeiat apecha tochal lechem” and “Yegiah kapecha ki tochal, ashrecha v’tov lach.” I would do everything in my power to avoid taking it, and if, G-d forbid, there was no other choice, I would literally kill myself working to get out such a demoralizing inhuman rut. Other may feel differently, but that’s how I was raised.
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