Charity is a Mitzvah
This week’s Torah portion covers a variety of topics. It includes the giving of a blessing to Israel and a curse if we do not follow what G-d has commanded, to the best of our ability. It also prescribes that those that worship idols should be banished from the face of the earth, and their dwellings destroyed. It then instructs Israel that there is a particular place to build the temple, and that the worship of G-d should not be done anywhere other than the temple, including the offering of sacrifices. The parsha concludes with the laws of the three pilgrimage festivals – Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
Also contained in this parsha is the mitzvah of charity, and to this I want to explore a bit more in depth. Each week we read Psalm 92 for Shabbat, the prayer for the Sabbath. We sing the last four lines of this psalm beginning with Tzadek ka’tamar, “the righteous flourish”. Tzadek is a root word of Tzadekah, a righteous giving, a mitzvah. According to Torah, Jews are obligated to aid the needy fellow person with a gift or a loan. If the needy will not accept the gift typically out of pride, a loan is to be provided to maintain the pride of the one receiving help. Every seven years all loans are forgiven, and all indentured servants are to be set free after six years of service.
More specifically, the Torah explains in some detail that If there will among you a needy person from one of your brothers within any of your gates, in the land which G-d is giving you, you should not act obstinately, or close your hand to your needy brother. Rather, you should certainly open your hand to him, and lend to him on pledge sufficient for his need that he lacks.
Rashi elaborates on this by explaining that “The most needy have preference over others more fortunate. The poor of one’s city has preference over the poor of another city. There are people who painfully deliberate whether they should give or not, to which the Torah states you should not act obstinately, and there are people who stretch out their hand ready to give but then close it. Thus, the Torah elaborates you should certainly open your hand to the needy many times, and if they do not want a gift, you are to provide it as a loan. You are not commanded to make him wealthy but if he is starving, you should feed him. If he needs clothing, you should clothe him. If he was once rich and had a horse with a slave walking before him that should be provided to him as well.”
Does this mean we should give until we are impoverished? Absolutely not. However, we cannot turn our backs to those that need us most. In fact according to Talmud, and other rabbinic scholars, we as individuals do not necessarily have to provide for an individual but rather, provide what we can afford without becoming poor to a central group called the Gabbi-Tzedakah; the ones appointed over the community-collected funds to be dispensed to the poor. In order to fulfill the mission of our temples, we give to them to help the community at large, and more specifically, the Jewish community. To do so, according to the Torah, is a mitzvah.
When I was a teenager, there were numerous Jewish families coming out of the Soviet Union whose was obtained by a variety of Jewish organizations, but they had nothing but the clothing on their backs when they arrived to the States. My parents and grandmother helped provide apartments, clothing, and with the help of several temples in our region, food and furnishings to help these families start anew in the United States. One such individual was an avid swimmer, but because he was Jewish, was not permitted to train for the Olympics for Russia. When he arrived in the US, our local university, Youngstown State eagerly accepted him to teach swimming and as I understand went on to compete to represent the US in the Olympics. He did not make it, but was definitely among some of the finest swimmers on the US team in the 1980’s. But his opportunities would have never been possible without the giving of a community.
We expect a lot from our community, and to make it all happen requires a commitment. Giving comes in all forms, from volunteering to help in the community, within the temple committees, the board, or simply providing an Oneg or Kiddush on Shabbat. It also comes in the form of financial giving. This particular mitzvah is hard to do, and even harder to do well. But it’s not called Tzedakah for nothing. As I told my daughter on the day of her Bat Mitzvah, sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest.
Shabbat Shalom.
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