Tzedakah- Saves us from Death

Years ago, a tzedakah guru, Danny Siegel, spent time at our synagogue. In fact the foodbank we have in our shul is a direct result of his visit. Danny recently wrote: There is no word for chemist or physicist in the Talmud, yet why are we so impressed by them? If, at a get-together, a guest in our house says he is doing critical research in sub-atomic particles, or cracking through the far reaches of DNA behavior, why is there such admiration for this person? (I am speaking of course of good Jewish men and women.) But let us suppose this Jew says, “I am a celebrator of mitzvahs,” or “my occupation is ziesskeit, human sweetness, and I study the way it plays itself out among Jews…” What would the reaction be? Surprise of course….” A meshuggener” …must be an artist.” Or, unable to suppress our urge to think, we blurt out…This you call a living.” We ask our children about their grades in history and literature, though rarely do we enquire about “excellence in Tzedakah and rachmoniss,” generosity and uniquely Jewish living and giving. Tzedakah is very much a part of our expected behaviors as Jews. It is based on a view that is found in Torah that we are obligated to help those in need. The Rabbis in the Talmud tried to establish priorities in giving tzedakah. In Bava Metzia 71a we are told that we must give to those in our own community before those of another community. We are to contribute to those who are closest to us …immediate family, kin, other Jews, the community) and then only after these obligations are met, are we to give to those further away both in place and relationship. If you look at that perspective of giving, you would not think of saying to a fellow Jew that they should not be helping provide for the needs of an adult child who needs help or an elderly parent who needs assistance because the first place to give tzedakah is to your family. You would also not think about supporting a general community need before supporting a Jewish community need and yes, that also includes Israel because in terms of Jewish values, Israel is also seen as a part of one’s community since every Jew has a share in the homeland. According to Rabbi Judy Schindler, by the 2nd century, the Jewish community had four tzedakah funds. It had daily food distribution, a clothing fund, burial fund, and communal money fund. We have managed to replicate two of these funds in our own Jewish community. As I just mentioned, we do have our own small food bank. It has helped families who quietly know that they may avail themselves of the food and personal care items on the shelves. It is located in the back of the shul so no one need feel embarrassed about taking items off the shelves in the presence of others. We have also instituted the practice of providing leftover food items after Shabbat to families that we know can use assistance with food during the week. In addition, I have a lay-leader’s discretionary fund that has been used to help families with unexpected emergencies. Of course the Federation also has funds for this purpose as well. Two funds that we have not replicated are the clothing fund and the burial fund. Twice this past year I was aware that monies were not available to cover the expenses of burial in our community. Burial expenses can be overwhelming when a family is unprepared for them, yet I think we would all agree that we believe in the basic concept of providing a kosher burial for our dead. Omaha does have such a fund. Perhaps we need to talk to our neighbors to find out how they set it up and how it is administered to see if we can actually replicate such a fund in our own community. The clothing fund is also not in existence in our community. Perhaps one way to accomplish that would be to establish days when we set up our own racks that others may come to find clothing when monies for clothing purchase are limited. I realize that many of us do this already by handing off our lightly used clothing to those in the community that we know would benefit from owning them without having to pay for them. I’m just thinking that there are many who might find it easier to accomplish this goal if the synagogue actually established a procedure for providing clothing to the Jewish community in general. The idea of giving tzedakah is not treated lightly in our tradition. In fact, there is a story in the Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 156 b that shows the importance of doing tzedakah. It goes like this: Rabbi Akiva had a daughter. Chaldean astrologers said to him: “On the day your daughter enters the bridal chamber, a snake will bite her and she will die.” Rabbi Akiva became terribly distressed. On the night of her marriage, she removed a long hair pin and stuck it into a crevice in the wall. It penetrated the eye of a snake and remained there. In the morning, when she pulled her hair pin out of the crevice, a poisonous snake came trailing after it. Her father asked her. “What did you do?” Was there anything special that you did yesterday? “A poor man came to the door in the evening,” she replied. “Every person was busy at the banquet, and therefore no one heard. When I noticed, I stood up, and took the portion you gave me and I gave it to him.” “ You did a mitzvah,” he responded. Thereupon Rabbi Akiva went out and declared: “Tzedaka saves a person from death (proverbs 10:2) And not just from an unnatural death,” he added, “but from death itself.” The point of this story is that tzedaka saves us from spiritual death. Giving tzedaka allows us to live in the image of G-d who is seen in Judaism as a caring, giving G-d. It allows us to overcome our finitude and feeds our souls which are eternal. Instead of only focusing on ourselves, we help perfect the world by taking care of the needs of others as well. There is a tradition in Judaism that teaches that prior to the coming of the Messiah or the ushering in of the messianic age, Elijah will appear as a beggar. If we respond with tzedaka he will know that the world is ready for redemption. If we treat him badly, there will be no benefits for society. Perhaps Elijah in this story is asking us if we are able to perform a righteous act just because we are expected to do so, not because we feel like doing it. Can we perform an act of righteousness/tzedaka even if the benefit we experience isn’t in the physical realm but in the spiritual realm? As we enter this new year, may each of us realize that tzedaka not only transforms the needy and changes our community but it also has the power to save us from death by connecting us to the infinite. Acts of righteousness, tzedaka, are indeed very powerful for the individual as well as for the community. Shanah Tovah.

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