How do we decide what our priorities are in terms of giving tzedakah and helping another person? What do our Jewish sources teach us?
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| Our Sages taught: Gemilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness) is greater than tzedakah in three ways: Acts of tzedakah involve only one’s money – gemilut chasadim can involve both money or one’s personal service. Tzedakah can be given only to the poor – gemilut chasadim can be done both for the rich and for the poor. Tzedakah can be given only to the living – gemilut chasadim can be done both for the living and the dead. [AJWS translation] |
תנו רבנן: בשלשה דברים גדולה גמילות חסדים יותר מן הצדקה, צדקה - בממונו, גמילות חסדים - בין בגופו בין בממונו. צדקה - לעניים, גמילות חסדים - בין לעניים בין לעשירים. צדקה - לחיים, גמילות חסדים - בין לחיים בין למתים.
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1. Does gemilut chasadim or tzedakah apply more to Scenario A? Scenario B?
2. Do you agree that gemilut chasadim is better than tzedakah? Why or why not?
3. How can we add combine gemilut chasadim and tzedakah? Can you think of a situation in which you might use both together?
1. Why do you think God chose this widow to feed Elijah?
2. Who are the players in this text--seen and unseen?
3. What are the power dynamics between them?
4. This text describes a miracle that saved a household from hunger. What, if anything, can we learn from this text in a world in which miracles don't save people from hunger?
1. What does it mean to be "in the house of God"?
2. Is God's direct intervention necessary for nations to stop fighting? Is it possible for nations to engage with each other or do we just presume they will always be fighting?
3. What is the significance of weapons turning into plowshares and pruning hooks? What is the opposite of war?
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| R. Joseph learnt: If you lend money to any of my people that are poor with you: [this teaches, if the choice lies between] a Jew and a non-Jew, a Jew has preference; the poor or the rich the poor takes precedence; your poor [i.e. your relatives] and the [general] poor of your town, your poor come first; the poor of your city and the poor of another town the poor of your own town have prior rights. [Soncino translation] |
דתני רב יוסף (שמות כ"ב) אם כסף תלוה את עמי את העני עמך, עמי ונכרי - עמי קודם, עני ועשיר - עני קודם, ענייך ועניי עירך - ענייך קודמין, עניי עירך ועניי עיר אחרת - עניי עירך קודמין.
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1. How does this teaching affect the way that you understand the scenarios that we are discussing?
2. What causes us to attend to the needs of some over the needs of others?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the hierarchy in this text? Why?
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I invented the word eco-kosher, to say that something is ecologically kosher. I'll give you an example of eco-kosher. The regular kosher way is about the dishes that mustn't be contaminated, etc. If I pick up a cup to have coffee, styrofoam would be the best thing to have. It hasn't been used before and after I drink from it, I'll throw it away and nobody else will use it. From the usual kosher place that's the direction to go...but in comparison to waht will happen to the planet by my drinking in a styrofoam, I'd much rather make the other choice...eco-kosher.
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1. What is your understanding of Reb Zalman's approach to kashrut?
2. What is the difference between Jewish food ethics (eco-kosher) rather than just food ethics (ecological eating)?
3. Why eat in a "Jewishly" ethical way?
1. Why did God tell David that he could not build the House?
2. What does this teach us about the ethics of war?
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 10:12
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| Our sages commanded us to visit the non-Jewish sick and to bury the non-Jewish dead along with the Jewish dead, and support the non-Jewish poor along with the Jewish poor for the sake of peace. As it says, “God is good to all and God’s mercies extend over all God’s works” (Psalms 145:9), and “[The Torah’s] ways are pleasant and all its paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:17). [AJWS translation] |
אפילו העכו"ם צוו חכמים לבקר חוליהם, ולקבור מתיהם עם מתי ישראל, ולפרנס ענייהם בכלל עניי ישראל, מפני דרכי שלום. הרי נאמר טוב ה' לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו, ונאמר דרכיה דרכי נועם וכל נתיבותיה שלום.
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1. Why is this text involved in our two scenarios?
2. What does "for the sake of peace" mean?
3. Do you think that this idea is obvious or surprising? How do you think the people living at the time of the Talmud (200-500 CE) understood it?
1. What is the intention of this law? To what extent is it followed?
2. What does this text imply about the relationship of people and the environment?
3. What does this text imply in our broader considerations about war?
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| And any who sees a poor person begging and hides his eyes and does not give him charity transgresses a negative commandment, as it says (Deuteronomy 15:7), “Do not harden your heart or close your hand from your poor brother.” [AJWS translation] |
וכל הרואה עני מבקש והעלים עיניו ממנו ולא נתן לו צדקה עבר בלא תעשה שנאמר (דברים טו:ז) לא תאמץ את לבבך ולא תקפוץ את ידך מאחיך האביון.
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1. What does it mean to hide your eyes? In what ways to do we hide our eyes every day?
2. What would happen if we never hid our eyes?
3. How are the people in each of the scenarios hiding their eyes? Do the people in one scenario seem to have their eyes closed more tightly than the other?
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| You are commanded to provide the needy with whatever they lack. If they lack clothing, you must clothe them. If they lack household goods, you must provide them...You are commanded to fulfill all their needs, though not required to make them wealthy. [translation by AJWS] |
לפי מה שחסר העני אתה מצווה ליתן לו, אם אין לו כסות מכסים אותו, אם אין לו כלי בית קונין לו...ומצווה אתה להשלים חסרונו ואין אתה מצווה לעשרו.
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1) What does this text teach us about our obligation to provide for those in need?
2) How does this command relate to the two scenarios that we are discussing?
3) What do you do when you feel that you are being asked for more than you can give?
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| Whenever a person can save another person’s life but fails to do so, he transgresses a negative commandment, as Leviticus 19:16 states: “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” Similarly, [this commandment applies] when a person sees a colleague drowning at sea or being attacked by robbers or a wild animal, and he can save him himself or can hire others to save him and does not. Similarly, [it applies] when he hears [others] conspiring to harm a colleague or planning a snare for him, and he does not inform him and notify him [of the danger]. And similarly this is true if he knows of others scheming to harm a friend and can talk to those people and stop it from happening, but doesn't do that - and for all things in this category, the one who does these things transgresses the commandment of "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." [AJWS translation] |
כל היכול להציל ולא הציל עובר על (ויקרא י"ט ,ט"ז) לא תעמוד על דם רעך, וכן הרואה את חבירו טובע בים או ליסטים באים עליו או חיה רעה באה עליו ויכול להצילו הוא בעצמו או שישכור אחרים להצילו ולא הציל, או ששמע גוים או מוסרים מחשבים עליו רעה או טומנין לו פח ולא גלה אוזן חבירו והודיעו, או שידע בגוי או באנס שהוא קובל על חבירו ויכול לפייסו בגלל חבירו ולהסיר מה שבלבו ולא פייסו, וכל כיוצא בדברים אלו, העושה אותם עובר על לא תעמוד על דם רעך.
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1. What does it mean to see, hear, or know that someone's life is in danger? In our scenarios, do you see, hear, or know the risks at stake for the other person?
2. According to this text, one can hire others to save someone. In our own lives today, who can we hire to save the thousands of lives lost daily?
3 . How much does saving a life become an issue in each of the two scenarios?