40 Things You Can Do To Make a Difference - Tzedaka

Tzedaka comes from the word tzedek, which means justice.

Tzedaka is not giving charity on a whim, it is donating money or things of value to people who need them in order to make a just world.

Tzedaka acts on the idea that no one should be left without the basic needs to live a dignified existence. It is akin to distributive justice.

‘If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your poor brother. Rather be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs….Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart…I command you to be open-handed towards your brothers and towards the poor and needy in the land’.

Deuteronomy 15: 7-11

According to the Sages, the phrase ‘whatever he needs’ includes food, housing, basic furniture, and if necessary, money to pay for a wedding.

For centuries, each Jewish community would set up an organized tzedaka system with a tamchui, a kind of mobile kitchen and a kuppah, a community chest for the poor which distributed money weekly and set aside funds for clothing, dowries and burial costs.

‘What matters is not how much you give, but how you do so. Anonymity in the giving of aid is essential to dignity. The poor must not be embarrassed. The rich must not be allowed to feel superior. We give, not to take pride in our generosity, still less to emphasize the dependency of others, but because we belong to a covenant of human solidarity and because that is what God wants us to do, Hawkins the trust through which he has temporarily lent us wealth in the first place”.

To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Sacks (p38).