Old covenant law prohibited those who were cripple from entering the temple courts. This meant the man had to beg outside the gate as people went in. At the time many Jews probably understood his disability to be the result of a grave sin for which God had punished him (see John 9:1–2). Even so, giving alms to help the poor was one of the main ways of showing kindness and seen as a major expression of devotion to God (Exodus 22:21–27; Deuteronomy 10:18–20; Deuteronomy 24:17–18; Deuteronomy 27:19).1
2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.