Tzedakah

Tzedakah

Charity V.S. Tzedakah

Charity comes from the Latin word caritas meaning “from the heart”, while Tzedakah comes from the word Tzedek meaning, justice. Our booklet refers to charity as being only really good when one is in a good mood but not if they are not feeling so great. What it says about Tzedakah is that it does not matter what mood a man or woman might be in it just matters that they are prepared to give. I think one must give using the best aspects of charity and tzedakah. Combining both would mean creating justice from the heart. There should be no battle between Charity and Tzedakah, rather they should both join together making everyone create justice with their heart. If this is done, the world could be a better place.

People Who Give Tzedakah

In the little booklet on the side there is a little box that says “Did You Know? In the United States the poorest people give a higher percentage of their incomes to charity than the wealthy. Does this surprise you? Why or why not?”

How it Surprises me:
It surprises me because on the news channel and in the newspaper we are always reading articles about how charitable the rich are. For example, Warren Buffet gave 500 million dollars to build a hospital or Bill Gates gave 200 million dollars to children in Africa.

How it doesn’t surprise me:
In some ways it doesn’t surprise me because a lot of poorer people realize that you never know what happens in the future and they know that if their father doesn’t find a job they might be the person begging on the street next month needing donations to survive. So, they might be more likely to give knowing the need.

The Levels of Tzedakah

I do not think it is fair to make a list of the best way to give or the worst way to give. I think that if you are generous people should just say, “thank you and have a nice day” not “oh sorry, that’s the second worst way to give shame on you.” If you don’t respect people who give in different ways than you believe in, then you should not be asking for money at all. I think the levels of tzedakah list should not be shown, because it makes people giving feel badly about the way they are giving because they will look at the chart, sigh and then say to themselves “oh I’m only giving the fifth best way.” I think they should be walking away thinking to themselves that they did a mitzvah not that they didn’t give the best way so that they are no good.

How Should Tzedakah Be Given

I think that it is very interesting how G-D says that I want you to give but I do not want you to give too much. I do not think this applies to everyone though, as would be the case. If you're making two billion dollars a year. I think this is more of a guide line to the regular everyday person, because if you do make two billion dollars a year, I think you're able to give more than twenty percent of your total income. You could give fifty percent and still be able to live very happily, and even give so much that you leave yourself with only one million dollars and live happily. So I do not totally agree with this, but I understand it.

Can Kids Give Tzedakah

I do not think the question is “can they” but “should they,” because of course anyone can do something but should they? I can stab myself but should I? No of course not. Anyways, I think kids have an obligation to give charity. I do not think it is because they will make the biggest impact. Kids probably won’t, but if they do not give now then how will they know how later when they can make a bigger impact on the world? The answer is simple, later they will not know how to give with an open hand and who knows which one of us can end up being a multi billionaire. If children don’t learn to give now, that future billionaire will be giving squat not because he doesn’t want to help, but because he doesn’t realize that he can help.