Tzedakah: Jewish charity, sources and rules

“Tzedakah” is almost always translated as “charity,” and in English that word evokes optional generosity, an impulse of the heart that one may or may not have. But the Jewish tradition speaks of something quite different: an obligation, codified down to its amounts, its priorities and its institutions, which even someone with almost nothing is bound to fulfill. This article starts from the Torah, the Mishnah, the Talmud, Maimonides and the Shulchan Aruch to explain what tzedakah is, how it is practiced, and why it bears the name of justice.

In short: tzedakah (from the root tzedek, “justice”) is the duty to give the needy what they lack. It flows from a positive commandment of the Torah, “you shall open your hand” (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 15:7-11), and its mirror-image prohibition is to “shut your eyes” before the poor person. The usual norm is to give a tenth of one’s income (ma’aser kesafim), a fifth being the highest gesture and a ceiling for whoever does not wish to ruin himself; everyone must give, including the poor person who lives on donations. Maimonides ranks eight degrees of giving, from the lowest (giving reluctantly) to the highest: helping someone regain independence before he falls (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:7-14). Giving discreetly, without humiliating, with an open face and speaking gently is as important as the sum.

A word that does not mean “charity”

The word tzedakah comes from the root tzedek, justice, rectitude. It does not express pity first of all, but the idea that what I possess is not entirely “mine”: a share belongs to the one who needs it, and giving it to him restores a just balance. This is why the same word designates moral uprightness and help to the poor. When the Torah says of Avraham that he “had faith in the L-rd, and He reckoned it to him as tzedakah” (Bereshit [Genesis] 15:6), the word designates a merit, an uprightness. And in the account of his mission, the two meanings are joined: G-d wants Avraham to “command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the L-rd, doing tzedakah and justice (tzedakah u’mishpat)” (Bereshit 18:19).

Maimonides draws from this verse a conclusion that he states plainly: “We are obligated to be more careful with the mitzvah of tzedakah than with any other positive commandment, for tzedakah is the sign of the righteous person, a descendant of Avraham our father” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:1). He adds that “the throne of Israel is established, and the religion of truth stands firm, only through tzedakah” (same halakha, citing Yeshayahu [Isaiah] 54:14).

“We are obligated to be more careful with the mitzvah of tzedakah than with any other positive commandment, for tzedakah is the sign of the righteous person, a descendant of Avraham our father.”

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:1) — חיבין אנו להזהר במצות צדקה יותר מכל מצות עשה. שהצדקה סימן לצדיק זרע אברהם אבינו.

A point of vocabulary is needed. The Mishnah distinguishes tzedakah from gemilut chasadim, “acts of kindness”: we will come back to this, but the difference is fundamental. Tzedakah is above all a gift of money or goods to the needy; gemilut chasadim is broader (helping with one’s own person, visiting the sick, consoling, accompanying the dead) (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 49b).

What the Written Torah says

The Torah hardly uses the word tzedakah in the sense of a gift of money; it describes precise gestures. They can be grouped into four families.

The commandment to open the hand

The central text is found in the section on the sabbatical year, Devarim 15. It is addressed to each individual, not to the state:

“If there is among you a needy person, one of your brothers, in one of your towns (…), you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your needy brother. Rather, you shall open your hand wide to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he lacks.” (Devarim 15:7-8)

(Devarim 15:7-8) — כִּי־יִהְיֶה בְךָ אֶבְיוֹן מֵאַחַד אַחֶיךָ בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ בְּאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר־ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ לֹא תְאַמֵּץ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ וְלֹא תִקְפֹּץ אֶת־יָדְךָ מֵאָחִיךָ הָאֶבְיוֹן׃ כִּי־פָתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח אֶת־יָדְךָ לוֹ וְהַעֲבֵט תַּעֲבִיטֶנּוּ דֵּי מַחְסֹרוֹ אֲשֶׁר יֶחְסַר לוֹ׃

The rest of the chapter forbids saying to oneself, as the seventh year in which debts are released draws near, “The seventh year is approaching,” and then giving nothing, for the poor person will “cry out to the L-rd against you, and it will be a sin in you” (Devarim 15:9). It orders giving “without your heart being grieved” (15:10) and concludes with a lucid sentence: “For the needy will never cease from within the land; therefore I command you: you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and to your needy in your land” (15:11). This passage contains the two faces of the same duty: a positive commandment (open the hand) and a prohibition (do not shut it). The Shulchan Aruch recalls them together (Yoreh De’ah 247:1).

What goes to the poor by right

Other texts leave no room for personal generosity: they remove a share of the harvest from the owner in advance. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not finish off the corner (pe’ah) of your field in reaping, and you shall not gather the gleanings (leket) of your harvest (…), you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger” (Vayikra [Leviticus] 19:9-10; 23:22). And: “If you forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the orphan and the widow” (Devarim 24:19-21). Every three years, the tithe is set aside for the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (Devarim 14:28-29).

This system is essential for understanding tzedakah: in the Torah, the poor person is not a petitioner, he is a rightful claimant. The book of Ruth offers the concrete picture: it is because Ruth has the right to glean that she survives.

Not exploiting the poor

Finally, the Torah frames lending: “If you lend money to My people, to the poor person among you, you shall not be to him like a creditor, you shall not impose interest on him” (Shemot [Exodus] 22:24; Vayikra 25:35-37). And it grounds the obligation in one sentence: “If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him (…) and he shall live with you” (Vayikra 25:35). This verse (“you shall support him,” v’hechezakta bo) is, for Maimonides, the basis of the highest degree of tzedakah: supporting him before he falls.

“If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him; stranger or resident, he shall live with you.”

(Vayikra 25:35) — וְכִי־יָמוּךְ אָחִיךָ וּמָטָה יָדוֹ עִמָּךְ וְהֶחֱזַקְתָּ בּוֹ גֵּר וְתוֹשָׁב וָחַי עִמָּךְ׃

The Prophets and the Writings

The prophets do not present tzedakah as a supplement to religion: they make it its test. The fast day that G-d desires, says Yeshayahu, is not one in which one bows one’s head, but one in which one “shares one’s bread with the hungry, brings the homeless poor into one’s house, covers the naked when one sees them, and does not hide from one’s own flesh” (Yeshayahu 58:7). This passage is read on Yom Kippur morning as the haftarah (prophetic reading) of the fast (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 31a).

“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the wandering poor into your house, to cover the naked when you see him, and not to hide from your own flesh?”

(Yeshayahu 58:7) — הֲלוֹא פָרֹס לָרָעֵב לַחְמֶךָ וַעֲנִיִּים מְרוּדִים תָּבִיא בָיִת כִּי־תִרְאֶה עָרֹם וְכִסִּיתוֹ וּמִבְּשָׂרְךָ לֹא תִתְעַלָּם׃

The book of Proverbs (Mishlei) provides formulations that rabbinic literature will take up again and again: “Tzedakah delivers from death” (Mishlei 10:2); “One who is gracious to the poor lends to the L-rd, and He will repay his kindness” (Mishlei 19:17); “One who oppresses the poor insults his Maker, but one who is gracious to the needy honors Him” (Mishlei 14:31); “A gift in secret subdues anger” (Mishlei 21:14). The Psalms say: “Happy is he who considers the weak: on the day of evil, the L-rd will save him” (Tehillim [Psalms] 41:2), and of the righteous man: “He has scattered, he has given to the needy; his tzedakah endures forever” (Tehillim 112:9).

The Mishnah and the Talmud: the obligation is organized

An institution: the fund and the soup kitchen

In the time of the Mishnah (around 200 CE), tzedakah is no longer a private matter: it is a community service. The Mishnah provides for two arrangements. The first is the fund (kupah): money is collected every week for the poor of the town. The second is the soup kitchen (tamchui), food distributed every day, including to poor travelers passing through. “The fund is collected by two and distributed by three” (Mishnah Pe’ah 8:7; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 8b). The Talmud gives the reason: two suffice for collecting, since at least two people are needed to exercise public authority; three for distributing, since allocating amounts to judging, and one convenes a court of three, as for monetary cases.

The same Mishnah sets minimums: one gives a passing poor person no less than a loaf of bread, one provides lodging if he stays the night, and three meals if he spends Shabbat. It also sets ceilings on resources: one who has enough to eat for two meals does not take from the soup kitchen, and one who has enough for fourteen meals does not take from the fund (Mishnah Pe’ah 8:7). The poor are thus not dependents on principle: aid is there for those who truly have nothing.

Maimonides notes with pride that these institutions were universal: “We have never seen nor heard of a community of Israel without a tzedakah fund” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 9:3); the Shulchan Aruch repeats it almost word for word (Yoreh De’ah 256:1). In the Temple itself, there was a “chamber of secrets” (lishkat chashaim): “Sin-fearing men deposited there in secret, and poor people of good family were supported from it in secret” (Mishnah Shekalim 5:6).

“There were two chambers in the Temple: one, the chamber of secrets, the other, the chamber of vessels. In the chamber of secrets, sin-fearing men deposited in secret, and poor people of good family were supported from it in secret.”

(Mishnah Shekalim 5:6) — שתי לשכות היו במקדש, אחת לשכת חשאים, ואחת לשכת הכלים, לשכת חשאים יראי חטא נותנים לתוכה בחשאי, ועניים בני טובים מתפרנסים מתוכה בחשאי.

A duty that engages the world

Mishnah Pe’ah 1:1 ranks “acts of kindness” among the things “whose fruits a person eats in this world while the principal remains for him in the world to come.” Shimon HaTzaddik, one of the last men of the Great Assembly, taught that the world stands on three things: Torah, the (Temple) service and gemilut chasadim (Pirkei Avot 1:2). Yose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem says: “Let your house be wide open, and let the poor be members of your household” (Pirkei Avot 1:5), and another mishnah of this tractate defines four character types according to how they say “mine” and “yours”: one who says “mine is mine and yours is yours” is of average character, “and some say: this is the trait of Sodom”; “mine is yours and yours is yours” is the chasid, the pious person (Pirkei Avot 5:10).

“Let your house be wide open, and let the poor be members of your household.”

(Pirkei Avot 1:5) — יוסי בן יוחנן איש ירושלים אומר, יהי ביתך פתוח לרוחה, ויהיו עניים בני ביתך.

The Talmud, in tractate Bava Batra, gathers many sayings on tzedakah (9a-10b). Rav Assi affirms: “Tzedakah is equal to all the other mitzvot” (Bava Batra 9a). Rabbi Elazar says that one who causes others to give is greater than one who gives himself (Bava Batra 9a, citing Yeshayahu 32:17: “the work of tzedakah shall be peace”). Rabbi Yitzchak teaches: “One who gives a coin to a poor person receives six blessings; one who appeases him with words receives eleven” (Bava Batra 9b): consolation counts for more than money.

Rabbi Elazar also affirms, in a famous passage, that “one who does tzedakah is greater than all the sacrifices,” since it is written: “To do tzedakah and justice is more desired by the L-rd than sacrifice” (Mishlei 21:3), and that gemilut chasadim is greater than tzedakah. The Talmud gives three reasons: tzedakah is done only with money, whereas acts of kindness are also done with one’s person; it is directed only to the poor, whereas kindness is directed to rich and poor alike; it is directed only to the living, whereas kindness is directed to the dead as well (Sukkah 49b).

“Rabbi Elazar said: one who does tzedakah is greater than all the sacrifices, for it is said: ‘To do tzedakah and justice is more desired by the L-rd than sacrifice.’ And Rabbi Elazar said: gemilut chasadim is greater than tzedakah, for it is said: ‘Sow for yourselves according to tzedakah and reap according to kindness.'”

(Sukkah 49b) — אמר רבי אלעזר: גדול העושה צדקה יותר מכל הקרבנות, שנאמר: ״עשה צדקה ומשפט נבחר לה׳ מזבח״. ואמר רבי אלעזר: גדולה גמילות חסדים יותר מן הצדקה, שנאמר: ״זרעו לכם לצדקה וקצרו לפי חסד״.

Giving “what he lacks”

What is owed to the poor person? The Talmud reads the words of Devarim 15:8, “sufficient for his need, whatever he lacks”: “You are obligated to sustain him, but you are not obligated to make him rich.” But “whatever he lacks” includes “even a horse to ride and a servant to run before him” if that was his station. It is told that Hillel the Elder bought a horse and a servant for a poor person of good family, and that, one day when he had not found a servant, he himself ran before him for three miles (Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 67b).

“‘Sufficient for his need’: you are obligated to sustain him, but you are not obligated to make him rich. ‘Whatever he lacks’: even a horse to ride and a servant to run before him. It is told of Hillel the Elder that he bought for a poor person of good family a horse to ride and a servant to run before him. Once, he did not find a servant and ran before him for three miles.”

(Ketubot 67b) — תנו רבנן: ״די מחסורו״ — אתה מצווה עליו לפרנסו, ואי אתה מצווה עליו לעשרו. ״אשר יחסר לו״ — אפילו סוס לרכוב עליו ועבד לרוץ לפניו. אמרו עליו על הלל הזקן שלקח לעני בן טובים אחד סוס לרכוב עליו ועבד לרוץ לפניו. פעם אחת לא מצא עבד לרוץ לפניו, ורץ לפניו שלשה מילין.

The same passage tells that Mar Ukva used to send four hundred zuzim every Yom Kippur eve to a poor man in his neighborhood; one day, his son reported that old wine had been poured out before this poor man to perfume his room. Mar Ukva concluded: “If he is so delicate, he needs more,” and he doubled the sum (Ketubot 67b). The principle is clear: need is measured by the dignity of the recipient, not by what the giver finds sufficient.

Not humiliating

The Talmud tells of Mar Ukva’s gesture: every day, he slipped four zuzim under the door of a poor man in his neighborhood. The day this man wanted to see who his benefactor was, Mar Ukva and his wife fled and took refuge in an oven whose fire had just gone out; his feet were burning. His wife said to him: “Put your feet on mine, which are not burned.” He was offended; she explained to him that, since she stays at home, she gives food directly, which is immediate help, whereas he gives money (Ketubot 67b). Maimonides draws on this when he describes the “great sages” who threw coins at the doors of the poor (Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:9).

The underlying moral principle is formulated elsewhere in the Talmud: “One who makes his fellow’s face turn pale in public is as if he shed blood” (Bava Metzia 58b). Humiliating the poor person is therefore a grave sin, not a detail of politeness.

A few coins and a folded cloth left on the stone threshold of an old wooden door at dawn

Maimonides’ eight degrees

The best-known text on tzedakah is chapter 10 of the Laws of Gifts to the Poor, where Maimonides ranks eight degrees. It must be read in order: “There are eight degrees in tzedakah, one higher than the next.” (Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:7). The highest:

“The highest degree, above which there is none, is to support an Israelite who is faltering, by giving him a gift or a loan, or by entering into partnership with him, or by finding him work, in order to strengthen his hand so that he will no longer need to ask others. And of him it is said: ‘You shall support him, stranger or resident, and he shall live with you’: that is, support him before he falls and is in need.”

(Rambam, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:7) — שמונה מעלות יש בצדקה זו למעלה מזו. מעלה גדולה שאין למעלה ממנה זה המחזיק ביד ישראל שמך ונותן לו מתנה או הלואה או עושה עמו שתפות או ממציא לו מלאכה כדי לחזק את ידו עד שלא יצטרך לבריות לשאל.

The other seven, in descending order:

1. Giving without the giver knowing who receives, nor the poor person knowing who gives: “a mitzvah for its own sake,” like the Temple’s chamber of secrets. Very close: giving to a tzedakah fund, provided that its administrator is “faithful, wise and knows how to manage properly,” like Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon (10:8). 2. The giver knows the recipient, but not vice versa: like the great sages who discreetly threw coins at the doors of the poor (10:9). 3. The poor person knows the giver, but not vice versa: the sages who tied coins in a cloth, thrown behind their backs, so that the poor could help themselves without shame (10:10). 4. One gives before he asks (10:11). 5. One gives after he has asked (10:12). 6. One gives less than one should, but with a pleasant face (10:13). 7. One gives with sadness (10:14).

This ladder calls for two remarks. First, what Maimonides puts at the summit is not the largest sum but the help that removes the need: a loan, a partnership, employment. The “final” gesture is not to give, it is to make the gift unnecessary. Second, he does not say that a lower gesture is worth nothing: even the last degree, giving with sadness, is a gift, and therefore a mitzvah fulfilled. The text describes the quality of the gift, not its existence.

The same chapter states two principles of conduct toward the poor. “If the poor person asks you and you have nothing to give him, appease him with words; it is forbidden to rebuke him or raise your voice at him, for his heart is broken (…). Be to him like a father, in compassion as in words” (10:5). And one who urges others to give has a greater reward than one who gives himself (10:6). The Sefer HaChinuch, which enumerates the mitzvot in the thirteenth century, insists on joy: the mitzvah of tzedakah is “to give tzedakah to the one who needs it, with joy and goodness of heart” (mitzvah 479).

How much to give, to whom, how

The amounts

The Torah sets no amount. The Sages did so in stages. Maimonides writes: if the poor person asks for what he lacks and the giver cannot afford it, “he gives according to his means, and how much? Up to a fifth of his property: this is the mitzvah in its chosen form; a tenth is the average measure; less than that is having an evil eye” (Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 7:5). The Shulchan Aruch repeats it: “A fifth of one’s property is the most chosen mitzvah; a tenth is the average measure; less than that is an evil eye” (Yoreh De’ah 249:1). This tithe (ma’aser kesafim, “money tithe”) has become the norm in many communities.

The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Krakow, sixteenth century, who completes the Shulchan Aruch with Ashkenazi customs) adds a limit: “A person should not spend more than a fifth, so as not to need others himself” (Yoreh De’ah 249:1). This rule has a Talmudic source: at Usha, the Sages decided that one who lavishes money on the poor should not exceed a fifth, “lest he need other people” (Ketubot 50a). The Rema specifies that this applies during one’s lifetime; as death approaches, one may give as much as one wishes. He also specifies that “luxury” mitzvot (candles for the synagogue, for example) are not taken from the tithe intended for the poor.

Rav Assi adds an almost symbolic minimum: “A person should never refrain from giving a third of a shekel a year” (Bava Batra 9a, citing Nechemiah 10:33). Maimonides deduces that one who gives less has not fulfilled the mitzvah (7:5).

Everyone gives

A point often misunderstood: even the poor person must give. Maimonides says: “Even a poor person who lives on tzedakah is obligated to give tzedakah to another” (7:5), and the Shulchan Aruch: “Every person is obligated to give tzedakah, even a poor person who is supported by tzedakah must give from what he is given” (Yoreh De’ah 248:1). Rav Benizri adds that “the rich person is indebted to the poor person” (see below): no one is exempt from giving, because no one is exempt from being a giver.

Compelling?

If someone refuses to give, the court may compel him. According to Maimonides, the court strikes him “with a disciplinary lashing” until he gives what has been assessed, and may even seize his property, up to the eve of Shabbat (7:10); the Shulchan Aruch repeats it (Yoreh De’ah 248:1). Today, no Jewish court exercises these sanctions, but the principle remains: the obligation is legal in nature, not optional.

Who first?

Maimonides sets an order of priority, drawn from the verse “to your brother, to your poor, to your needy in your land” (Devarim 15:11): “A poor relative takes precedence over any other; the poor of one’s own household before the poor of one’s town; the poor of one’s town before those of another town” (7:13). The ransoming of captives takes precedence over feeding and clothing the poor, because the captive combines hunger, thirst, nakedness and danger of death (8:10). The Shulchan Aruch specifies that “feeding the hungry comes before clothing the naked” (Yoreh De’ah 251:7).

Tzedakah does not stop at the border of the Jewish people. The Talmud teaches: “We feed the poor of the nations along with the poor of Israel, we visit the sick of the nations along with the sick of Israel, we bury the dead of the nations along with the dead of Israel, for the sake of the ways of peace” (Gittin 61a), and the Shulchan Aruch repeats it (Yoreh De’ah 151:12; see also 251:1).

Individual and community

The Rema makes an important distinction: the obligation to give “sufficient for his need” (the formula of Devarim 15:8) rests on the community fund (the gabbaim) or on several people together; the individual, for his part, “makes the person’s distress known to others,” and gives himself, within his means, only if there is no one else (Yoreh De’ah 250:1). Each town must indeed appoint tzedakah gabbaim, “known and trustworthy men” who each collect according to what falls to them and distribute every Shabbat eve (Yoreh De’ah 256:1). The Talmud already went so far as to say that tzedakah collectors are not asked for an accounting (Bava Batra 9a), but Maimonides specifies that one gives only to a “faithful and wise” administrator (10:8).

Halakha, ethics, mysticism: three readings to be distinguished

Halakha (practical law) sets the obligation, the amounts, the priorities and the organization. Differences between Ashkenazim and Sephardim are discreet here, because the basic texts (Rambam, Shulchan Aruch) are shared. They appear mainly in the glosses of the Rema (the fifth as a ceiling, the distinction between the individual and the community) and in local collection customs.

Aggadah and mussar (moral reading) seek meaning. Why does G-d not feed the poor Himself? The Talmud stages a Roman, Turnus Rufus (usually identified with Tineius Rufus, governor of Judea in the time of Rabbi Akiva), and his question has remained famous. He asks Rabbi Akiva: if your G-d loves the poor, why does He not feed them? Rabbi Akiva answers: so that we may be saved, thanks to them, from the judgment of Gehinnom. The other retorts that it is the opposite: a king angry with his slave threw him in prison, ordering that he not be fed; if someone feeds him, will the king not be angry? Rabbi Akiva answers with another parable: the king, angry with his son, locked him up; if someone feeds him, “will the king not send him a gift? And we are called ‘sons,’ as it is written: ‘You are sons of the L-rd your G-d'” (Bava Batra 10a, citing Devarim 14:1).

“Rabbi Akiva said to him: I will tell you a parable. To what is this comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who became angry with his son and put him in prison, ordering that he not be given food or drink. Someone went and fed him and gave him drink. When the king hears of it, will he not send him a gift? And we are called sons, as it is written: ‘You are sons of the L-rd your G-d.'”

(Bava Batra 10a) — אמר לו רבי עקיבא, אמשול לך משל: למה הדבר דומה? למלך בשר ודם שכעס על בנו וחבשו בבית האסורין, וצוה עליו שלא להאכילו ושלא להשקותו. והלך אדם אחד והאכילו והשקהו. כששמע המלך, לא דורון משגר לו?! ואנן קרוין בנים, דכתיב: ״בנים אתם לה׳ אלהיכם״!

Another moral reading is protection: “Tzedakah delivers from death” (Mishlei 10:2), which the Talmud applies to two cases. In one, a man whom the sage Ablat believed doomed to a snakebite is saved because, when the bread was being shared, he had pretended to take the portion of the one who had none, to spare him shame; in the other, Rabbi Akiva’s daughter escapes a snake because she had given her portion of the meal to a poor man whom no one heard knocking. Rabbi Akiva concludes that tzedakah saves “not from a strange death, but from death itself” (Shabbat 156b). The Jerusalem Talmud adds that tzedakah, along with prayer and repentance, “annuls the evil decree” (Ta’anit 2:1, in the name of Rabbi Elazar), a formula that has become one of the pillars of the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Mysticism and Chassidut give tzedakah a cosmic scope. The Tanya (Likutei Amarim 37), a classic of Chabad Chassidut, ranks “tzedakah money that is not stolen” among the material objects that the mitzvah causes to “rise”: the vitality that is in the coin ascends and merges into the Infinite Light. It is therefore not only a moral gesture: matter itself is transformed by the act. This is a mystical reading, not a rule of practice, and the reader should take it as such.

A little history

Tzedakah accompanies Jewish history as a form of social organization. In the Second Temple period, the Temple itself serves as a fund, with its “chamber of secrets” (Mishnah Shekalim 5:6); the Book of Nechemiah (fifth century BCE, according to the usual dating) reports the commitment to give a third of a shekel a year (Nechemiah 10:33). After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the local community takes over, with the fund and the soup kitchen described by the Mishnah and the Talmud (Pe’ah 8:7; Bava Batra 8b). The Talmud itself explains what becomes of the shekel: “When the Temple existed, a person gave his shekel and obtained atonement; now that it no longer exists, if people do tzedakah, so much the better; otherwise the nations come and take by force” (Bava Batra 9a).

In the Middle Ages, the documents of the Cairo Geniza, the manuscript repository of a synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo), show how the communities of Egypt concretely organized aid to the poor: community collections, support for the poor, widows and orphans, ransoming of captives. The historian Mark R. Cohen studied these documents and drew from them a detailed picture of poverty and charity in medieval Egyptian Jewry. Maimonides, settled in Egypt, speaks from experience when he writes that a community without a tzedakah fund has never been seen (Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 9:3).

The Jewish communities of the Diaspora reproduced the model almost everywhere: funds, distributions before Shabbat, help with the marriage of orphans (already provided for in Ketubot 67b). This tradition continues today in charity committees and holiday collections.

What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches

Rav Raphaël Benizri has not devoted a lecture to tzedakah as such, but it recurs in several of his teachings, always tied to a broader idea. The passages below are taken from his published lectures.

The poor person gives to the rich person. In his lecture on Pirkei Avot, he connects tzedakah with the service of G-d: giving to G-d costs “not so much,” but what costs a person most is sharing what he has with the other. He recalls that “the poor person does more for the rich person than the rich person does for the poor person”: the rich person is indebted to the poor person, because without him he would not even be recognized and his possessions would have neither meaning nor value. The relationship we believe to be one-way is in reality reversed. He adds that benevolence dictated by “tit for tat” alone carries within it “the seed of sin” (Pirkei Avot: let your house be open). The rabbinic formula the Rav invokes has a source: “More than the master of the house does for the poor person, the poor person does for the master of the house” (Ruth Rabbah 5:9, in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua).

A house open to the other. In the same lecture, the Rav comments on the saying of Yose ben Yochanan (“let your house be wide open”). He would translate not “open to hospitality” but “open to well-being”: the person must not feel that he is facing a door to cross, but that he pushes the door open. The image comes from Avraham, whose tent was open on all four sides, so that no one had to walk around it. He invites us to “give the other what he truly lacks”: Avraham served meat to those who were not used to eating it and wine to those who did not drink it. He notes that the word designating the needy person comes from the verb “to answer”: he is someone waiting, who asks for something.

The one who gives is the one who receives. In his lectures on Rosh Hashanah and Elul, the Rav recalls that the liturgy of the Days of Awe places three things capable of averting the severity of the decree: teshuva, tefillah and tzedakah. For tzedakah, the Sages found it in the Megillah, in the verse “each sending portions to his fellow, and gifts to the poor” (Esther 9:22). A person is measured first by his generosity, and the one who gives, says the Rav, is in reality the one who receives (Rosh Hashanah: the meaning of the Jewish New Year; Elul: rediscovering one’s sources).

The rights of the poor in the book of Ruth. In his lecture on Ruth, he shows that Boaz does not watch over his workers: he checks that the rights of the poor are respected, that is, the laws of gleaning, of the forgotten sheaf and of the corner left for the poor. This is why he orders that sheaves be let fall so that they may be gathered (Shavuot: the book of Ruth and chesed).

A mitzvah without a blessing. In his lecture on the Haggadah, the Rav notes that the Haggadah has no blessing, because its effort has no end: “like tzedakah or the practice of kindness, it belongs to the nature of man living in society” (Pesach: Pe-Sach, the mouth that speaks).

Common misconceptions about tzedakah

“Tzedakah is optional almsgiving.” False: it is a positive commandment of the Torah (Devarim 15:8), accompanied by a prohibition (15:7), which the Talmud sets in parallel with all the other mitzvot (Bava Batra 9a) and for which one who evades it is compared, with surprising severity, to an idolater: “Whoever shuts his eyes to tzedakah is as if he worshiped idols” (Ketubot 68a, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 247:1).

“Only the rich give.” False: “Every person is obligated to give, even a poor person who lives on donations” (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 248:1; Rambam 7:5).

“One must give everything one has.” False: the usual ceiling is a fifth of one’s property (Ketubot 50a; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 249:1, Rema), so as not to become dependent oneself.

“One gives only to Jews.” False: one feeds the poor of the nations “for the sake of the ways of peace” (Gittin 61a; Yoreh De’ah 151:12).

“Tzedakah buys a clear conscience.” The Talmud says the opposite: the greatest gift is the one that preserves the poor person’s dignity (Maimonides, degrees 1 to 3), and one who humiliates while giving has lost the essential (Bava Metzia 58b).

“If G-d loved the poor, He would feed them.” This is the objection of Tineius Rufus, and Rabbi Akiva’s answer makes tzedakah a response to distress, not an explanation of it: we are sons who feed a brother (Bava Batra 10a).

Frequently asked questions about tzedakah

How much must one give?

At the very minimum, symbolically, a third of a shekel a year (Bava Batra 9a). The average measure is a tenth of income, and the fifth is the most chosen form, with this fifth as a ceiling so as not to ruin oneself (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 249:1). To work out your own situation (net or gross income, mitzvah expenses), consult a rabbi.

What is the difference between tzedakah and gemilut chasadim?

Tzedakah is a gift of money to a poor person, for the living. Gemilut chasadim is broader: it is done with one’s person as with one’s money, for the poor as for the rich, for the living as for the dead (Sukkah 49b).

May one give to a beggar one distrusts?

The sources insist first on the community fund, whose gabbaim are trustworthy men (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 256:1), and on the danger of not giving (“whoever shuts his eyes…,” Yoreh De’ah 247:1). For doubtful cases (an unknown solicitor, an organization without guarantees), ask a rabbi for advice; Maimonides recommends giving only to a fund whose administrator is reliable (10:8).

Is lending a form of tzedakah?

Yes. The verse speaks of lending (“you shall lend him what he lacks,” Devarim 15:8) and Maimonides places “the loan” among the highest forms of help, along with partnership and employment (10:7). The Sefer HaChinuch goes further: the mitzvah of lending to the poor is “stronger” than that of giving, because one who has not yet lost face fears having to ask (mitzvah 66).

What do we do on Purim?

On Purim, one gives at least two gifts to two poor people (matanot la’evyonim), in addition to sending portions to friends, based on Esther 9:22. Maimonides teaches that it is better to multiply gifts to the poor than to increase the feast: “There is no greater and more beautiful joy than gladdening the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows and the strangers” (Hilchot Megillah ve-Chanukah 2:16-17). Rav Benizri connects this gift with the third pillar of the Days of Awe.

May one give money for a synagogue as part of the tithe?

According to the Rema, no: one does not deduct from the tithe intended for the poor in order to finance other mitzvot, such as candles for the synagogue; it is given to the poor (Yoreh De’ah 249:1). If in doubt about the calculation, consult a rabbi.

What is tzedakah? Charity in Judaism