When you think about giving tzedakah, do you see yourself contributing to an annual campaign of a tzedakah agency or actually giving directly to an individual in need? How do you feel when you are confronted by a beggar who approaches you? Does it make you uncomfortable or are you able to respond with an attitude of kindness?
This week's parasha talks specifically about our responsibility to provide for the needy in our midst. In Deuteronomy 15:7-11 it states, "If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your G-d is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs. Beware lest you harbor the base thought,'The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching,' so that you are mean to your needy kinsman and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will incur guilt. Give to him readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the Lord your G-d will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings. For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land."
This statement in Deuteronomy, the last book of the Torah, is actually related to a statement in Genesis, the first book of the Torah. In Genesis 18:17-19, G-d says, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to become blessed through him? For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and their children in the future to keep the way of G-d, acting with tzedaka and mishpat, righteousness and justness and in order that G-d may bring about for Abraham that which He has promised him."
What is the relationship? Both statements talk about acting with tzedakah (righteousness). Both statements talk about learned giving. In the first statement, Moses is relaying a specific commandment that we are to follow. In the second statement, we learn that we are to teach our children about acting with tzedaka and mishpat, righteousness and justice.
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, a 19th century German commentator, acknowledged that mishpat, justice is "something that a person has the right to demand from another. Tzedaka designates something which in itself no person has the right to demand from another but which G-d has given every person the right, not to demand, but to be justified in expecting." He discusses why the passage from Genesis talks about tzedakah before mishpat. He points out that tzedaka is benevolence, kindness, compassion, generosity, and goodwill all of which are an individual's duty to perform. He notes that the Jewish protest against the life that was being lived in Sodom was not about justice but about benevolence which is the "world-redeeming word which the House of Avraham is to carry through the world. By putting benevolence before justice, it makes the rich consider themselves merely as the administrators of a treasury which in actuality belongs to the poor!"
How does Rabbi Hirsch think the principles of tzedaka will be carried out from one generation to another? He proposes that it won't be by the enforcement of rules and laws. It will be by the education of a generation by their predecessors who will pass on the "living will" so to speak about following G-d's commands. Rabbi Hirsch's idea stresses the thought that giving tzedaka is not about being nice. It requires the giver to recognize that whatever he/she has is a gift from G-d and that we are responsible for acting like a treasurer who makes sure that part of the money we have been given is then transferred to the right sources, namely the needy. If we follow the charge of Deuteronomy and Genesis, we will actually find ourselves becoming automatic givers.
As we think about our own lives and the times we see others in need or receive calls from agencies representing the needs of those who are unable to provide for themselves, we should not only try to think about our response but think about who taught us about giving tzedaka? What specifically were we taught? Did that message align itself with the message of Torah? Is there anything that we would want to make sure the next generation understands about giving tzedakah? When we actually focus on these questions, we might find that any discomfort we feel when being asked to help those in need, will dissipate and we will be able to conduct ourselves according to the instructions in Torah.
Shabbat Shalom.
It just so happens that, shortly after hearing Nancy's sermon, that I was reading this essay by Darra Goldsein, the Editor of Gastronomy, in which she describes the 19th century Russian custom of "begging" for food and how even the very poor were still able to practice tzedaka.
ReplyDeletehttp://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdfplus/10.1525/gfc.2010.10.2.iii
One can certainly see how the ideal of Communism can come from thinking along the lines of the commentary by Rabbi Hirsch. "benevolence makes the rich consider themselves merely as the administrators of a treasury which in actuality belongs to the poor!" And in her verbal comments on the Parshat, she asked what amount should be given, and answered her own question that whatever was needed should be given. It would be harder to imagine a statement closer to "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Of course, Rabbi Hirsch (presumably) does not wish to eliminate the concept of god from the world as the Communists do, but other than that, it is difficult to discern significant differences between this line of thinking and that of the Communist ideal, especially since "every person (has) the right to be justified in expecting" this.
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