It means creating a more just society in which everyone has the opportunity to live with dignity and independence.
In conclusion, the stories and laws surrounding the concept of tzedakah in Judaism offer us a profound insight into the nature of Jewish ethics. They teach us that tzedakah is not just about giving money to the poor, but about recognizing and addressing the psychological impact of poverty, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to live with dignity and independence. By following these principles and laws, we can work towards creating a more just and compassionate society for all.
Regenerate It means giving people the means to live a dignified life, and within the Jewish value system any form of employment is more dignified than dependence.
We have in this ruling of Maimonides in the 12th century the principle that Muhammad Yunus rediscovered in our time, and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize: the idea of micro-loans enabling poor people to start small businesses. It is a very powerful idea.
In contradistinction to many other religious systems, Judaism refused to romanticize poverty or anaesthetize its pain. Faith is not what Karl Marx called âthe opium of the people.â The rabbis refused to see poverty as a blessed state, an affliction to be born with acceptance and grace. Instead, the rabbis called it âa kind of deathâ and âworse than fifty plagues.â They said, âNothing is harder to bear than poverty, because he who is crushed by poverty is like one to whom all the troubles of the world cling and upon whom all the curses of Deuteronomy have descended. If all other troubles were placed on one side and poverty on the other, poverty would outweigh them all.â
Maimonides went to the heart of the matter when he said:
The well-being of the soul can only be obtained after that of the body has been secured (The Guide for the Perplexed, 3:27).
Poverty is not a noble state. You cannot reach spiritual heights if you have no food to eat, no roof over your head, if you lack access to medical attention, or if you are beset by financial worries. I know of no saner approach to poverty, welfare, and social justice than that of Judaism. Unsurpassed in its time, it remains the benchmark of a decent society to this day.