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JCYF Text Collection Jewish Community Youth Foundation TEXTS: Draft Aug 24, 2007 Contents: 1. General Texts about Giving a. Not Teaching Your Children to Earn is to Teach them to Rob b. Tzedakah is Equivalent to all other Mitzvot c. Giving Will Not Make You Poor 2. We Don’t Really Own What We Give Away Anyway a. The Sabbatical Year b. Do Not Reap the Corners of your Land 3. Should the Poor Also Give? Two Perspectives a. Even Those Who Receive Tzedakah Should Give b. One’s Own Sustenance Comes First 4. Types of Giving a. Eight Categories of Giving Tzedakah, a.k.a Maimonides Ladder b. The Difference Between Tzedkah and Gemilut Hasadim c. Emergency Versus Ongoing Needs 5. Who Should We Give to? Texts about Allocating a. Allocating is Painful b. Give to Family First, then to the Neighbors c. Giving to Non-Jews d. How to Compare the Poor in your town to the Poor around the World 6. How Much Should We Give? a. Sufficient for his Needs (Day Machsoro) b. Defining ‘Sufficient for his Needs’ c. How Much to Give: 20%? 10%? 7. Tzedakah Midrash a. Midrash of the Sheep Crossing the River b. God Stands at the Right Side of a Poor Person 1. General Texts about Giving Not Teaching Your Children to Earn is to Teach them to Rob T. Kiddushin 29a Anyone who does not teach their child a skill or profession may be regarded as teaching their child to rob. Discussion: Do you think your parents have a responsibility to teach you a skill or profession? How does this teaching change your understanding of people who steal things? Tzedakah is Equivalent to all other Mitzvot B. Bava Batra 9a Rav Assi said: Tzedakah is equivalent to all the other religious precepts combined. Discussion: How do you understand Rav Assi’s teaching? Is he exaggerating to make a point, or do you think he means it literally? Giving Will Not Make You Poor Maimonides, Misheh Torah, Gifts to the Needy 10:1-2 No one has ever become impoverished by giving tzedakah, as it is said, “And the result of tzedakah is peace” (Isaiah 32:17). Discussion: What fears do people have when giving tzedakah? How do you understand the verse from Isaiah, that the result of tzedakah is peace? 2. We Don’t Really Own What We Give Away Anyway Sabbatical Year Exodus 23:10-11 Six years you shall sow your land and gather its yield; but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it, and what they leave let the wild beasts eat. You shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves. Do Not Reap the Corners of your Land Leviticus 19:9-10 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God. 3. Should the Poor also Give? Two Perspectives Even Those Who Receive Tzedakah Should Give B. Gittin 7b Mar Zutra said: Even a poor man who himself subsists on charity should give charity. R. Joseph learnt: If he does that, [Heaven] will not again inflict poverty upon him. Discussion: How do you react to the statement that even those who are so poor that they rely on tzedakah should also give? Why do you think the Rabbis taught that such a person would not again be afflicted by poverty? One’s Own Sustenance Comes First R. Yaakov, in name of R. Sadya Gaon, Tur 251 A man is obliged to give his own sustenance priority over that of any other person. He is not obliged to give charity until his own sustenance is met, since Scripture states that your brother should live together with you – your own life takes precedence over that of your brother. Discussion: How should we compare this text to the text from Gittin 7b? Do you agree that ‘your own life takes precedence over that of your brother’ ? 4. Types of Giving Eight Categories of Giving Tzedakah, a.k.a Maimonides Ladder Shulkan Arukh / Yoreh Deah 249 (follows Rambam Hilchot Matnot Aniymi 10, 7-14) There are 8 categories in giving charity as follows: 1. In the highest category is one who strengthens a fellow Jew in need by a gift, or loan, or offer of partnership, or employment. This sets him on his feet so that he does not require charitable aid nor need to ask for it. It is in reference to this that the Torah states (Lev 25:35) You shall uphold him. 2. In the next lower category is a donor who gives charity to a poor person when he does not know the identity of the recipient, nor does the recipient know the identity of the donor; closely related is a person who contributes to a charity fund, but a person should not contribute to such a fund unless he know s that the administrator is reliable and knows how to conduct its affairs properly. 3. In the next lower category is a donor who knows the recipient, though the recipient does not know who the donor is. For example, great sages used to go secretly to deposit money at the doors of the houses of poor people. This is a worthy practice and is particularly esteemed when the charity administrators do not conduct themselves properly. 4. In the next lower category the recipient knows who the donor is, but the donor does not know who the recipient is. For example, certain sages used to wrap up money in cloths which they threw behind them; the poor who came to collect the money were spared any shame. 5. In the next lower category is one who gives to a poor man before he asks. 6. In the next lower category is one who gives appropriate to a poor man after he has asked. 7. In the next lower category is one who gives less than is appropriate but in a pleasant and cheerful manner. 8. In the next lower category is one who gives ungraciously. The Difference Between Tzedkah and Gemilut Hasadim Louis Jacobs, The Jewish Religion: A Companion (1995) In a talmudic saying, the differences between charity and benevolence are said to lie in three areas. (1) Tzedakah (charity) can only be carried out by giving money, whereas gemilut hasadim (benevolence) involves giving of one’s person, for example by a kindly word or a pat on the shoulder or by generally offering words of comfort and consolation. (2) Tzedakah is directed to the poor, whereas gemilut hasadim involves the expression of goodwill to all, rich or poor, healthy or sick, to the successful as well as to those who fall short of success. (3) Tzedakah is given to the living. Gemilut hasadim can be extended to the dead by attending to the burial and going to the funeral. In reality the difference is one of disposition. The charitable person may give as an obligation imposed from without; his generosity may stem solely from his sense of duty. Gemilut hasadim, on the other hand, comes from within, from the compassionate heart. As the old Jewish saying has it: “Tzedakah awaits the cry of distress. Gemilut hasadim anticipates the cry of distress.” Among acts of gemilut hasadim especially singled out in the Jewish tradition are: visiting the sick, attending funerals, comforting mourners, and, very pressing in ancient communities, redeeming captives held to ransom by kidnappers. Discussion: Based on Rabbi Jacob’s teaching, how do you understand the differences between tzedakah and gemilut hasadim (acts of lovingkindness, or ‘benevolence’)? Do you think both kinds of giving are equally important? Do you find yourself drawn to one kind of giving more than another? Emergency Versus Ongoing Needs Commentary by M. Isserles to B. Ketubot 67b In an emergency, the responsibility to sustain the poor rests on the individual. Over time, the responsibility shifts to rest on the community. Discussion: Why do you think this commentator differentiates between ‘emergency’ and non-emergency needs? Do you agree with this thinking? 5. Who Should We Give to? Texts about Allocating Allocating is Painful B. Shabbat 118b May I be among the collectors of communal funds and not among the allocators. Discussion: What do you think the person who gave this teaching might have experienced? Give to Family First, then to the Neighbors Midrash Tana Devei Eliyahu, Ch 27 (quoted in Ma’aser Kesafim p102) If a person has enough food in his house and wishes to use it for charitable purposes to support others, he should first support his father and mother; if there is anything left he should support his brothers and sisters; if there is anything left he should support his other relatives; if there is anything left he should support his neighbors; if there is anything left he should support those who live in the same street. Thereafter he should distribute charity liberally to the rest of Israel. Discussion: Do you agree with this prioritization of giving: parents; siblings; relatives; neighbors; rest of Jewish community. What changes would you make to this order? Giving to Non-Jews Jerusalem Talmud Demai 4:1 In a city where non-Jews and Jews live, the tzedakah collectors collect from Jews and non-Jews and support Jewish and non-Jewish poor; we visit Jewish and non-Jewish sick and bury Jewish and non-Jewish dead, and comfort Jewish and non-Jewish mourners, and return lost goods of non-Jews and Jews, to promote the ways of peace.
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