Tzedakah

Tzedakah

By Benny

 

 

There are five very important aspects of tzedakah that I’m going to talk about: charity isn’t always tzedakah; the levels of tzedakah; how kids can do acts of tzedakah; how Judaism is related to tzedakah; and how tzedakah should be given.

 

Charity isn’t always tzedakah.  Tzedakah is a Hebrew word for justice.  Charity’s literal meaning is giving help to someone in need. As you can see from the literal translations, tzedakah is justice, and charity is giving. This means that if you give money or food to someone in need it wouldn’t be tzedakah but it would be charity.  However, if you gave your time, effort, or care into your charity it would be tzedakah.

 

There are different levels of tzedakah.  Bad: giving because you are forced to, to get recognition or something in return, or taking away the recipient’s dignity by publicizing your act. Good: giving with care, respect, unconditionally, with good spirits, or giving with modesty and respect to the recipient not making him/her feel small. In my opinion, the highest level of tzedakah is as Maimonides said - “catch a man a fish he eats for one day, teach a man to fish he eats forever.”

 

Some people think that kids can’t do tzedakah, but the are wrong. Not only can kids give tzedakah, but sometimes kids do bigger acts of tzedakah than adults. For example, if an adult gives a yearly donation to a foundation, even if it’s a large amount of money, it still can be less tzedakah than kids who run a food drive for the homeless.  I think that money isn’t always the solution, and that even the littlest bit of effort can be worth as much. For that reason, I think that kids are just as capable as adults to give tzedakah and can’t always rely on money - so that steers them in the right direction for true tzedakah.

 

Not only has tzedakah been a Jewish tradition for thousands of years, but was actually a law written in the Torah. The law was that all the Jewish farmers had to leave the corners of their fields uncropped so that people in need of food could take food without having to beg and therefore could keep there dignity.  Nowadays, not only do Jews do tzedakah in their community, but do acts of tzedakah around the world. For example, the Tikkun Olam project we are doing to help foundations of our choice with our time, effort, and care, to help them achieve their goals.

 

In my opinion, tzedakah should be given respectfully, with modesty, and generously. For example: give anonymously, to show that you don’t expect something in return. Don’t make it public, so that you don’t affect the person’s dignity. And to do the highest act of tzedakah - teach the person something so that they can do it themselves and so that they don’t have to rely on other people.

-Benny