After religious school yesterday, a student gave me her tzedakah box that she had filled at home. The tin can was heavy, full of change and bills.
It was apropos that she brought it in yesterday, as we had just discussed in religious school the meaning of the word tzedakah, coming from the word tzedek, meaning justice, or righteousness. Tzedakah has usually come to mean righteous giving, and we discussed with our students the ladder of giving taught by Maimonides. Most of the students agreed with Maimonides and thought that the lowest level is giving tzedakah, but giving unhappily. The felt it was important for people to give to others with joy. My prayer for these children is that they develop a love, a deep happiness, for this particular type of righteous giving.
A midrash views tzedakah as embedded within the very creation of the world, which we read this coming Shabbat in Parashat Bereshit:
From the beginning of the creation of the world, the Holy One saw the actions of the righteous and the actions of the wicked. “The earth was empty and chaos” (Bereshit 1:2) -- these are the actions of the wicked. “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” (Bereshit 1:3) -- these are the actions of the righteous. But how do we know which one God desires, the actions of these or the actions of those? Since it is written, “And God saw that the light was good” (Bereshit 1:4), God desires the actions of the righteous and not the actions of the wicked. (Bereshit Rabbah 2:5)
As we start the Torah all over again this Shabbat, I hope that all of our actions are filled with light. I hope it is a year of learning and reading Torah that reminds us of the importance of righteous giving and justice, a year where God desires our actions.
After that student giving me the tzedakah box had left the office, she ran back up to me and said, “Rabbi Sarit, can I have the box back so I can fill it more?” I can only imagine that God saw that it was good.
