High Holiday Prep Class: Tzedakah

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְותָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה:

Blessing for Torah Study

Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Ha'Olam Asher Kideshanu Bemitzvotav Vetzivanu La'asok Bedivrei Torah

Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Sovereign of Eternity, who has made us holy through Your sacred obligations and obligated us to immerse ourselves in the words of Torah.

ונתנה תוקף

(א) וּנְתַנֶּה תֹּקֶף קְדֻשַּׁת הַיּוֹם כִּי הוּא נוֹרָא וְאָיֹם וּבוֹ תִּנָּשֵׂא מַלְכוּתֶךָ וְיִכּוֹן בְּחֶסֶד כִּסְאֶךָ וְתֵשֵׁב עָלָיו בְּאֱמֶת

(ב) אֱמֶת כִּי אַתָּה הוּא דַּיָּן וּמוֹכִיחַ וְיוֹדֵעַ וָעֵד וְכוֹתֵב וְחוֹתֵם וְסוֹפֵר וּמוֹנֶה וְתִזְכֹּר כָּל הַנִּשְׁכָּחוֹת וְתִפְתַּח אֶת סֵפֶר הַזִּכְרוֹנוֹת וּמֵאֵלָיו יִקָּרֵא וְחוֹתָם יַד כָּל אָדָם בּוֹ

(ג) וּבְשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל יִתָּקַע וְקוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה יִשָׁמַע וּמַלְאָכִים יֵחָפֵזוּן וְחִיל וּרְעָדָה יֹאחֵזוּן וְיֹאמְרוּ הִנֵּה יוֹם הַדִּין לִפְקֹד עַל צְבָא מָרוֹם בַּדִּין כִּי לֹא יִזְכּוּ בְּעֵינֶיךָ בַּדִּין וְכָל בָּאֵי עוֹלָם יַעַבְרוּן לְפָנֶיךָ כִּבְנֵי מָרוֹן כְּבַקָּרַת רוֹעֶה עֶדְרוֹ מַעֲבִיר צֹאנוֹ תַּחַת שִׁבְטוֹ כֵּן תַּעֲבִיר וְתִסְפֹּר וְתִמְנֶה וְתִפְקֹד נֶפֶשׁ כָּל חָי וְתַחְתֹּךְ קִצְבָה לְכָל בְּרִיָּה וְתִכְתֹּב אֶת גְּזַר דִּינָם

(ד) בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה יִכָּתֵבוּן, וּבְיוֹם צוֹם כִּפּוּר יֵחָתֵמוּן. כַּמָּה יַעַבְרוּן, וְכַמָּה יִבָּרֵאוּן, מִי יִחְיֶה, וּמִי יָמוּת, מִי בְקִצּוֹ, וּמִי לֹא בְּקִצּוֹ, מִי בַמַּיִם, וּמִי בָאֵשׁ, מִי בַחֶרֶב, וּמִי בַחַיָּה, מִי בָרָעָב, וּמִי בַצָּמָא, מִי בָרַעַשׁ, וּמִי בַמַּגֵּפָה, מִי בַחֲנִיקָה, וּמִי בַסְּקִילָה, מִי יָנוּחַ, וּמִי יָנוּעַ, מִי יִשָּׁקֵט, וּמִי יְטֹּרֵף, מִי יִשָּׁלֵו, וּמִי יִתְיַסָּר, מִי יַעֲנִי, וּמִי יַעֲשִׁיר, מִי יֻשְׁפַּל, וּמִי יָרוּם. וּתְשׁוּבָה וּתְפִלָּה וּצְדָקָה מַעֲבִירִין אֶת רֹעַ הַגְּזֵרָה.

(ה) כִּי כְּשִׁמְךָ כֵּן תְּהִלָּתֶךָ, קָשֶׁה לִכְעוֹס וְנוֹחַ לִרְצוֹת, כִּי לֹא תַחְפֹּץ בְּמוֹת הַמֵּת, כִּי אִם בְּשׁוּבוֹ מִדַּרְכּוֹ וְחָיָה, וְעַד יוֹם מוֹתוֹ תְּחַכֶּה לוֹ, אִם יָשׁוּב מִיַּד תְּקַבְּלוֹ. (אֱמֶת) כִּי אַתָּה הוּא יוֹצְרָם וְיוֹדֵעַ יִצְרָם, כִּי הֵם בָּשָׂר וָדָם.

(ו) אָדָם יְסוֹדוֹ מֵעָפָר וְסוֹפוֹ לֶעָפָר. בְּנַפְשׁוֹ יָבִיא לַחְמוֹ. מָשׁוּל כְּחֶרֶס הַנִּשְׁבָּר, כְּחָצִיר יָבֵשׁ, וּכְצִיץ נוֹבֵל, כְּצֵל עוֹבֵר, וּכְעָנָן כָּלָה, וּכְרוּחַ נוֹשָׁבֶת, וּכְאָבָק פּוֹרֵחַ, וְכַחֲלוֹם יָעוּף. וְאַתָּה הוּא מֶלֶךְ אֵל חַי וְקַיָּם.

Unetaneh Tokef

(1) We shall ascribe holiness to this day. For it is awesome and terrible. Your kingship is exalted upon it. Your throne is established in mercy. You are enthroned upon it in truth.

(2) In truth You are the judge, The exhorter, the all‑knowing, the witness, He who inscribes and seals,

Remembering all that is forgotten. You open the book of remembrance Which proclaims itself, And the seal of each person is there.

(3) The great shofar is sounded, A still small voice is heard. The angels are dismayed, They are seized by fear and trembling As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment! For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment. They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes

And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop.

As a shepherd herds his flock, Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff, So do You cause to pass, count, and record, Visiting the souls of all living, Decreeing the length of their days, Inscribing their judgment.

(4) On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, And on Yom Kippur it is sealed. How many shall pass away and how many shall be born, Who shall live and who shall die, Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not, Who shall perish by water and who by fire,

Who by sword and who by wild beast, Who by famine and who by thirst, Who by earthquake and who by plague, Who by strangulation and who by stoning, Who shall have rest and who shall wander,

Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued, Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented, Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low, Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.

But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.

(5) For Your praise is in accordance with Your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease. For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood.

(6) The origin of man is dust, his end is dust. He earns his bread by exertion and is like a broken shard, like dry grass, a withered flower, like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like a breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like a dream that flies away. But You are King, God who lives for all eternity!

Rabbi Sharon Brous

Our tradition, in all its wisdom, demands that we obliterate the false protective shelter and, knowing that each moment might be our last, fight for a life of meaning today. The High Holy Days force us to shift from denial of death to purposeful engagement with life.

Un'taneh Tokof climaxes with the words Ut'shuvah, ut'fillah, utz'dakah ma'avirin et ro'a hag'zerah, "And repentance, prayer, and charity help the hardship of the decree pass" We can't dictate our fate. We can't hide from death. But there are three things that we can do to bring meaning into the radical uncertainty of our lives.

T'shuvah ("repentance"): You don't have to be a static, stagnant being, dwelling perpetually in the mistakes of years past. You can choose to make t'shuvah, affirming that life is dynamic and people change. Find the courage to ask for forgiveness from the people you have hurt. Find the strength to forgive those who have hurt you and the audacity to forgive yourself. Open your heart and embrace the people around you- most importantly those you most often take for granted. Hug your kids.

T'fillah ("prayer"): You don't have to be alone. You are part of a story that is bigger than you, where the critical currency is God and the soul, not money, power, or celebrity. Let the majesty of nature distract you. Open your heart to pain. Let the world take your breath away. Connect to something beyond the physical, the tangible, the utterly graspable. Allow yourself not ti understand and yet to appreciate anyway. Live in mystery.

Tz'dakah ("charity"): Stop digging yourself further and further into your own dramas, as if the privileges of freedom and prosperity come with no responsibility to others. Open your eyes and give a damn! Let your heart break over illness, poverty, loss, and violence. Affirm the power of love! Bring healing and comfort! Stake your claim in the world!

T'shuvah, t'fillah, and tz'dakah will not save us from cancer; they cannot protect us from the terror... We cannot ensure long life, but we can find meaning, purpose, and celebration in the life we have... Ut'shuvah, ut'fillah, utz'dakah ma'avirin et ro'ahag'zerah, "And repentance, prayer, and charity help the hardship of the decree pass." The decree cannot be changed. But we retain the power to make for ourselves a life worth living.

משנה תורה, הלכות תשובה ב׳:ד׳

(ד) מִדַּרְכֵי הַתְּשׁוּבָה לִהְיוֹת הַשָּׁב צוֹעֵק תָּמִיד לִפְנֵי הַשֵּׁם בִּבְכִי וּבְתַחֲנוּנִים וְעוֹשֶׂה צְדָקָה כְּפִי כֹּחוֹ וּמִתְרַחֵק הַרְבֵּה מִן הַדָּבָר שֶׁחָטָא בּוֹ וּמְשַׁנֶּה שְׁמוֹ כְּלוֹמַר אֲנִי אַחֵר וְאֵינִי אוֹתוֹ הָאִישׁ שֶׁעָשָׂה אוֹתָן הַמַּעֲשִׂים וּמְשַׁנֶּה מַעֲשָׂיו כֻּלָּן לְטוֹבָה וּלְדֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה וְגוֹלֶה מִמְּקוֹמוֹ. שֶׁגָּלוּת מְכַפֶּרֶת עָוֹן מִפְּנֵי שֶׁגּוֹרֶמֶת לוֹ לְהִכָּנַע וְלִהְיוֹת עָנָו וּשְׁפַל רוּחַ:

Mishneh Torah, Repentance 2:4

(4) Among the ways of repentance are, for the penitent to continue to cry out in tearful supplication before the Name, to bestow alms according to his means, and to distance himself exceedingly from the thing wherein he sinned, to have his indentity changed, as if saying: "I am now another person, and not that person who perpetrated those misdeeds", to completely change his conduct for the good and straight path, and to exile himself from his place of residence, for exile atones iniquity, because it leads him to submissiveness and to be meek and humble-spirited.

Question: Why the emphasis on Tzedakah? What does it have to do with Teshuvah and Tefilah? Why is Tzedakah on the short list of key religious practices? In what way is it a religious practice?

Rabbi David Hartman and Rabbi Tzvi Marx

The concept of Tzedakah (charity), a word that is etymologically related to tzedek (justice), involves a person's response to the needs of other human beings. According to the Talmud and Maimonides, the disposition to be responsive to human beings in need is a condition sine quan non of membership in the covenantal community of Israel.

Belief, in Judaism, is related to self-transcendence. It involves not only dogma and doctrine but also the psychological ability to acknowledge and respond to that which is other than oneself. A person who is imprisoned within his private needs and interests may be characterized as a nonbeliever insofar as his life lacks the dimension of transcendence. A person may utter the words "I believe," yet if he is unresponsive to others and generally unmoved by the world beyond his private domain, he fails to demonstrate belief in a transcendent God.

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling

Tzedakah is an act of submitting ourselves to God, in that we accept our connection with others and our responsibility to them. Frequent giving gradually opens our hearts and helps us move beyond our own self-centeredness. It leads to a metamorphosis of the spirit.

משנה אבות ג׳:ז׳

(ז) רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אִישׁ בַּרְתּוֹתָא אוֹמֵר, תֶּן לוֹ מִשֶּׁלּוֹ, שֶׁאַתָּה וְשֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלּוֹ. וְכֵן בְּדָוִד הוּא אוֹמֵר (דברי הימים א כט) כִּי מִמְּךָ הַכֹּל וּמִיָּדְךָ נָתַנּוּ לָךְ.

Pirkei Avot 3:7

(7) Rabbi Elazar of Bartotha said: give to Him of that which is His, for you and that which is yours is His; and thus it says with regards to David: “for everything comes from You, and from Your own hand have we given you” (I Chronicles 29:14).

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg

The central intention and process of all spiritual and religious practices and traditions is acknowledging God's ownership, which allows us to let go of our separate and small self. Tzedakah is a core practice that habituates us to letting go of that small self.

Rabbi Jacob Staub

When we experience the bounty of the universe as a divine gift, we can experience ourselves as conduits of divine blessing that we can share with others.

Rabbi Toba Spitzer

In contemporary America, we tend to think of our economic system as a metaphoric ladder than one can climb through some combination of effort, talent, and opportunity. Accompanying this unspoken metaphor is an assumption that one's position on the ladder corresponds, more or less, to one's overall worth and ability. But for our rabbinic ancestors, economic fortune was conceived of as a constantly turning wheel, and the person on top today could as easily be on the bottom tomorrow. Thus, one rationale for giving to the communal tzedakah fund was that the giver might tomorrow need to be on the receiving end. This awareness of the fragility of our own economic security, as well as our own experience of hardship and want, teach us compassion for all who are in need.

Rabbi Richard Hirsh

Personal acts of tzedakah hardly have the power to rearrange society. While acts of tzedakah are described as benefiting both donor and recipient, we might make a good case that the impact of these acts is greater on the one who gives than on the one who receives. If we want to see significant social transformation, diminishing the sense of entitlement and the imperative of acquisition may be more significant in the pursuit of justices that the direct impact of tzedakah. Personal rather than social transformation may be one goal of tzedakah—to help us question just how much we need.

Question: What does Tzedakah have to do with God, if anything?

Rabbi Levi Yizhak of Berditchev

Just as a Jew gives tzedakah to the poor and robes himself in the attribute of lovingkindness, and shows lovingkindness toward a poor person, similarly this causes God to robe Himself in the attribute of lovingkindness and to make divine lovingkindness flow … to all of the worlds and the worlds below, as the rabbis said: “Anyone who shows mercy to humankind brings mercy on oneself from the heavens.” (Talmud, Shabbat 151b)

Jeffrey Darko

The medieval kabbalists regarded tzedakah as kind of a mystical glue for the universe that is applied through human action, actualizing both God's will and God's very being. In that sense, tzedakah is an obligation that enhances our material world with divinity and perhaps even enhances God's own being.

סוטה י״ד א:ג׳-ד׳

ואמר רבי חמא ברבי חנינא מאי דכתיב (דברים יג, ה) אחרי יהוה אלהיכם תלכו וכי אפשר לו לאדם להלך אחר שכינה והלא כבר נאמר (דברים ד, כד) כי יהוה אלהיך אש אוכלה הוא אלא להלך אחר מדותיו של הקב"ה מה הוא מלביש ערומים דכתיב (בראשית ג, כא) ויעש יהוה אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם אף אתה הלבש ערומים הקב"ה ביקר חולים דכתיב (בראשית יח, א) וירא אליו יהוה באלוני ממרא אף אתה בקר חולים הקב"ה ניחם אבלים דכתיב (בראשית כה, יא) ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך אלהים את יצחק בנו אף אתה נחם אבלים הקב"ה קבר מתים דכתיב (דברים לד, ו) ויקבר אותו בגיא אף אתה קבור מתים

Sotah 14a:3-4

And Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “After the Lord your God shall you walk” (Deuteronomy 13:5)? But is it actually possible for a person to follow the Divine Presence? But hasn’t it already been stated: “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire,” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and one cannot approach fire.He explains: Rather, the meaning is that one should follow the attributes of the Holy One, Blessed be He.Just as He clothes the naked, as it is written: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), so too, should you clothe the naked. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, visits the sick, as it is written with regard to God’s appearing to Abraham following his circumcision: “And the Lord appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre” (Genesis 18:1), so too, should you visit the sick. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, consoles mourners, as it is written: “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son” (Genesis 25:11), so too, should you console mourners. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, buried the dead, as it is written: “And he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:6), so too, should you bury the dead.

Question: What does Tzedakah look like?

David Hartman and Tzvi Marx
The prophets dreamed in metaphors of turbulent streams of righteousness, as in "Let justice well up like water, Righteousness (tzedakah) like an unfailing stream" (Amos 5:24). Rabbinic halakhah translated these visions into the possible. The Mishnah, at Pe'ah 8:7, recommends that "one must not give the wandering poor man less than a loaf worth of pondion [roman coin] at a time when four se'ahs of wheat cost one sela [nine sela equa four pondions; four sea'as equal 24 kabs]." In this way the scriptural "mighty stream of righteousness" was converted into the talmudic "half a kab or 12 eggs volume of bread."

Rabbi Toba Spitzer

Jewish tradition is adamant that, with the exception of those who are in economic distress, a reasonable amount to give is between 5 and 10 percent of one's annual income. (Larger gifts based on wealth, not income, are another issue.) Less than 5 percent is considered stingy. Most American Jews (and most Americans) give far less than that. One way to take on the discipline of meeting one's tzdedakah obligation is to set up a separate bank account to which an amount is contributed each month, and to make contributions out of this account. The creation of a separate tzedakah account has the effect of limiting consumption and also reinforces the fundamental notion—embodied in the biblical practices of the tithe and agricultural gleanings—that the money owed to the well-being of others is not in fact really ours in the first place.

משנה תורה, הלכות מתנות עניים י׳:ה׳

(ה) שָׁאַל הֶעָנִי מִמְּךָ וְאֵין בְּיָדְךָ כְּלוּם לִתֵּן לוֹ פַּיְּסֵהוּ בִּדְבָרִים. וְאָסוּר לִגְעֹר בְּעָנִי אוֹ לְהַגְבִּיהַּ קוֹלוֹ עָלָיו בִּצְעָקָה. מִפְּנֵי שֶׁלִּבּוֹ נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּא וַהֲרֵי הוּא אוֹמֵר (תהילים נא יט) "לֵב נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּה אֱלֹהִים לֹא תִבְזֶה". וְאוֹמֵר (ישעיה נז טו) "לְהַחֲיוֹת רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים וּלְהַחֲיוֹת לֵב נִדְכָּאִים". וְאוֹי לְמִי שֶׁהִכְלִים אֶת הֶעָנִי אוֹי לוֹ. אֶלָּא יִהְיֶה לוֹ כְּאָב בֵּין בְּרַחֲמִים בֵּין בִּדְבָרִים שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (איוב כט טז) "אָב אָנֹכִי לָאֶבְיוֹנִים":

Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 10:5

(5) If a poor person asks of you [to give him something], and you do not have anything in your possession to give to him, comfort him with words. It is forbidden to speak harshly to a poor person or to raise your voice in a shout, for his heart is broken and crushed. Thus it says in Scripture, (Psalms 51:19) God, You will not despise a contrite and crushed heart. And it says, (Isaiah 57:15) Reviving the spirits of the lowly, reviving the hearts of the contrite. And woe to anyone who shames a poor person! Woe to him! Rather, let him be like a father to him, in compassion and in words, as it is said, (Job 29:15) I was a father to the needy.

Rabbis David Hartman and Tzvi Marx

Maimonides is addressing himself to the problem of the hostility we may feel toward a person we are unable to help. Our inability to respond adequately to such a person's needs exposes our inadequacies and, therefore, we may transfer the anger we feel toward ourselves onto the needy person.

Tzedakah is not only measured by concrete, efficacious action. It also involves the subjective response of sympathy—listening and sharing in the pain of the person in need irrespective of one's ability to solve or ameliorate the problematic condition at hand. Tzedakah involves not only "naton titten" ("give to them readily") (Deut 15:10), but also "lo teametz et levavkhah" ("do not harden your heart") (Deut 15:7) irrespective of the feasibility of effective action.

The Protester and the Prophet
Bob Rowland

I was hungry
and you formed a humanities club
and discussed my hunger.
Thank you.

I was imprisoned
and you crept off quietly
to your chapel in the cellar
and prayed for my release.

I was naked
and in your mind
you debated the morality
of my appearance.

I was sick
and you thanked God
for your good health.

I was homeless
and you preached to me
of the spiritual shelter
of the love of God.

I was lonely
and you left me alone
to pray for me.

You seem so holy;
so close to God
But I'm still very hungry
and lonely
and cold...

בבא בתרא ט׳ א:י״ב

אמר רב אסי לעולם אל ימנע אדם עצמו [מלתת] שלישית השקל בשנה שנאמר (נחמיה י, לג) והעמדנו עלינו מצות לתת עלינו שלישית השקל בשנה לעבודת בית אלהינו ואמר רב אסי שקולה צדקה כנגד כל המצות שנאמר והעמדנו עלינו מצות וגו' מצוה אין כתיב כאן אלא מצות

Bava Batra 9a:12

Rav Asi says: A person should never prevent himself from giving at least one-third of a shekel a year in charity, as it is stated: “And we also established mitzvot upon ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the House of our God” (Nehemiah 10:33). And Rav Asi says: Charity is equivalent to all the other mitzvot combined, as it is stated in that verse: “We also established mitzvot upon ourselves.” A mitzva is not written here, but rather mitzvot, in the plural, thereby teaching that this mitzva is equivalent to all the other mitzvot.

בבא בתרא י׳ א:י״ב

תניא רבי יהודה אומר גדולה צדקה שמקרבת את הגאולה שנאמר (ישעיהו נו, א) כה אמר יהוה שמרו משפט ועשו צדקה כי קרובה ישועתי לבא וצדקתי להגלות הוא היה אומר עשרה דברים קשים נבראו בעולם הר קשה ברזל מחתכו ברזל קשה אור מפעפעו אור קשה מים מכבין אותו מים קשים עבים סובלים אותן עבים קשים רוח מפזרתן רוח קשה גוף סובלו גוף קשה פחד שוברו פחד קשה יין מפיגו יין קשה שינה מפכחתו ומיתה קשה מכולם [וצדקה מצלת מן המיתה] דכתיב (משלי י, ב) וצדקה תציל ממות

Bava Batra 10a:12

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: Great is charity in that it advances the redemption, as it is stated: “So said the Lord, uphold justice and do charity, for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed” (Isaiah 56:1). He would say: Ten strong entities were created in the world, one stronger than the other. A mountain is strong, but iron, which is stronger, cleaves it. Iron is strong, but fire melts it. Fire is strong, but water extinguishes it. Water is strong, but clouds bear it. Clouds are strong, but wind disperses them. Wind is strong, but the human body withstands it. The human body is strong, but fear breaks it. Fear is strong, but wine dispels it. Wine is strong, but sleep drives it off. And death is stronger than them all, but tzedakah saves a person from death, as it is written: “And tzedakah delivers from death” (Proverbs 10:2, 11:4).