Volunteering and Judaism

The concept of helping others, the way we do when we volunteer, is found in the very earliest Jewish sources. Below is a varied list of early sources as well as more recent leaders' thoughts on the subject of Hesed and Tikun Olam.

"Love your neighbour as yourself" Leviticus 19:18

"You have been told what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Michah 6:8

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?" Hillel in Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

"It is not what one says, but rather what one does, that makes a difference." Ethics of the Fathers 1:17

"Do not separate yourself from the community" Hillel in Ethics of the Fathers 2:5

"Though it is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, nor are you free to desist from it entirely" Rabbi Tarfon, Ethics of the Fathers 2:16

"He whose good deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure. But he whose wisdom exceeds his good deeds, his wisdom will not endure." Ethics of the Fathers 3:9

"All Israelites are responsible for one another" Talmud Sanhedrin 27b

"Anyone who shares a community's distress will be rewarded and will witness the community's consolation" Talmud Ta'anit 11a:

"Deeds of lovingkindness are equal in weight to all the commandments." Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 1:1

"The 20th-century ideals of America have been the ideals of the Jew for more than 20 centuries" Louis Brandeis

"The paradox of volunteering is that the more we give, the more we are given" The Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Credo in The Times June 2005

"Beneath the clamour of self-interest, a quieter voice within us whispers the deeper truth, that the greatest gift is to be able to give." The Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Credo in The Times June 2005

"The interesting part of the moral life, the grown up part, comes not in universals but in particulars. It speaks to me, here, now: this person, in this situation, at this time. It calls to me, not to the person next to me. It says: there is an act only you can do, a situation only you can address, a moment that, if not seized, may never come again. God commands in generalities but calls in particulars. He knows our gifts and he knows the needs of the world. That is why we are here." The Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in To Heal a Fractured World

"Volunteering can't change community depression..but giving people a sense that it is worth volunteering can change things." Rabbi Julia Neuberger The Guardian July 11, 2007