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Tzedakah (Charity, kinda)

10/4/2015

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Today we present the Jewish value of Tzedakah: The fightin’ value of charitable giving! Kinda!
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Tzedakah (tzeh-DAH-kah) is generally translated as charity, but actually comes from the hebrew word for…
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We don't just give because it's nice, we give because it's the right thing to do.
Thoughts on Tzedakah break down into two categories: Ideal and practical. We’ll start with the ideal:
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Maimonides—a 12th century rabbi/doctor/philosopher/everything living in Egypt—created an eight-step “ladder” describing the best ways to give Tzedakah.
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No sweat, right?
The lowest rung is reserved for those who give grudgingly:
Next is those who give less than they should but, but do so cheerfully:
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Making it rain singles on the poor is bad form, no matter how excited you are.
Levels 3 and 4 are those who give directly to the poor. Level 3 is for people have have to be asked, Level 4 is those who do so without prompting:
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Prince Ali gets to the fourth rung!
Rungs 5-7 deal with various levels of anonymity in giving, with Level 7 reaching the point that both donor and recipient are unknown to each other.
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The highest level on the ladder is the preverbal teaching a man fish:
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No joke, this actually looks like me as a small child. It also still represents my approximate fishing skills.
This is all fine and good, but like many other religions, Tzedakah also has a pragmatic mandatory giving component. I’m not an expert, but Iknow Christianity has a concept of tithing and one of the five pillars of Islam is Zakat, also mandatory alms-giving.

In the Torah (first five books of the Bible), God mandates that farmers not harvest the corners of their fields to leave that food for the poor.
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Modern Jewish scholar Dennis Prager once said ”Judaism would love you to give 10 percent of your income each year from your heart. It suspects, however, that in a large majority of cases, were we to wait for people's hearts to prompt them to give a tenth of their money away, we would be waiting a very long time ...”
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“... Ergo, Judaism says, Give ten percent-and if your heart catches up, terrific. In the meantime, good has been done."
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So when you're counting your dough, make sure you set some aside for those less fortunate.
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Best,

Ben
The Jew
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    About the Jew

    The Jew is an Uber driving, Bar Mitzvah DJing, yoga teaching ex-journalist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He now attends rabbi school in New York

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  • Home
  • A Jewish Holiday
    • Shabbat
    • Rosh HaShanah >
      • Overview
      • The Shofar
    • Yom Kippur >
      • Yom Kippur Overview
      • Yom Kippur thoughts 5778
    • Sukkot
    • Simchat Torah
    • Hanukkah
    • Tu B'Shvat
    • Purim
    • Passover
    • Lag Ba'Omer
    • Shavuot
    • Tisha B'Av
    • Tu B'Av
  • A Parsha
    • Bereshit/Genesis >
      • Bereshit
      • Noach/Noah
      • Lech L'cha
      • Vayeira
      • Chayei Sarah
      • Toldot
      • Vayeitzei
    • Shmot/Exodus
    • Vayikra/Leviticus
    • Bamidbar/Numbers
    • Dvarim/Deuteronomy
  • A Jewish Value
  • About The Jew
  • Ask a Jew