Final - Tzedakah Tikkun Olam Maimonides Ladder - Dec

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Final - Tzedakah Tikkun Olam Maimonides Ladder - Dec

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REVIEW & EXPLANATION OF TZEDAKAH, TIKKUN OLAM, MAIMONIDES

Tzedakah & Tikkun Olam

What exactly is Tzedakah? The word “tzedakah” is often translated into English as “charity.”
However, it actually comes from the Hebrew root word tzedek, which means justice. The way we
understand tzedakah now was developed by early rabbis, who understood that life in our world
is not always fair, and that the way resources are distributed in most societies often results in not
all people getting what they need. . Some people might have plenty of food while others do not
have enough to eat. Some children might live with loving parents but others don’t. Some people
are healthy but others are sick. Therefore, it is our responsibility to help make things more just or
fair through redistributing resources in society, and doing other things that help people around
us.
Many Jewish scholars, philosophers, writers, activists and rabbis have written about why it is
our responsibility to help make things more fair and just in the world. Lots of people have
different ideas about how we should do this, but most agree that it is a very important part of
being Jewish. There are many commandments in the Torah and other Jewish texts commanding
Jews to do mitzvot, or good deeds, in order to make the world a better place. Some Jews believe
that God created the world but did not finish creating it; continuing that job is the work of human
beings! According to this understanding of the world, Tzedakah in the form of giving is an
expression of justice, not pity or mercy. Tikkun Olam is another important Jewish concept,
which means “repairing the world.” This can be done through tzedakah in the form of giving,
or through working to help other people in various ways. We often call this social action;
striving to create a more fair world for all people.

Moses Maimonides

Eight hundred years ago, there was a wise man named Moses Maimonides (pronounced “My-
mawn-i-deez”). He and his family lived in Spain, where there was a large Jewish community.
Maimonides traveled and lived in other places as he grew older. He studied medicine, the Bible

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and the writings of great Rabbis. He eventually settled in Egypt, where he worked as a doctor for
the Egyptian ruler. He became the most important Jewish thinker, writer, and scholar in the
world at the time. During the 12th century, Jews from many lands traveled to see him. They
wanted to talk to him and study with him. He was famous because of his interesting ideas on all
sorts of subjects, including different aspects of Jewish life and philosophies, including tzedakah.
He tried to explain how important it is for us to give tzedakah. Maimonides came up with an
idea about different levels of giving. A ladder is a good way of representing this idea (see the
next page for this). He wrote that there are eight steps or levels to giving tzedakah. The steps
go from not very good to better to best. The lowest level is like stepping on the first step on a
ladder. You are close to the ground, but you are going in the right direction. Giving tzedakah at
higher levels is like climbing on higher steps on the ladder. The highest level is the best because it
does the most to help another person have a fair share of the world. We still use Maimonides’
ideas today to think more deeply about what it means to try and help the world be more just by
helping other people and giving.

Maimonides’ Ladder / Eight Levels of Charitable Giving:

1. Giving reluctantly, grudgingly or with regret

2. Giving graciously/cheerfully, but less than one should

3. Giving the amount that one should, but only after being asked

4. Giving the amount that one should without being asked

5. Donations when the recipient is aware of the donor’s identity, but the donor does
not know the specific identity of the recipient

6. Donations when the donor is aware of who they are giving charity to, but the
recipient is unaware of who the donor is

7. Giving assistance in such a way that the giver and recipient are both unknown to
each other

8. Helping another person become self-supporting / self-reliant, or helping someone

before they get to a situation of being in poverty, in a dignified way. Examples of

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this could include: giving a loan (for school, to start a business, etc), helping
someone find a job, teaching someone skills that will help them find, keep or
search for a job, etc…

Below are two questions about what you just read, reviewing things we’ve discussed.
Please answer them before our next class. It can be in point form if you’d like, and there
are no wrong answers!

1. Why do you think that Maimonides put “helping a person become self-
supporting / self-reliant” so high up on his ladder of giving?

2. What do you think could be some differences between giving in a way is an

expression of justice, vs. giving in a way that comes from pity?

3. Write down one example each of things you have done, or have seen other people
doing. Do this for at least three of the “levels” that Maimonides listed

(yourself, family, friends, teachers, things in the news or that you’ve read, etc).

For example: ‘I have seen my family giving to ___ charity or volunteering at ____
place’ – which level would you put those activities at? Or ‘My friend helped this
person or helped with ___ activity at school / in the community’ – which level do
you think that would be at?

These sheets were adapted from / written with info from:

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- “A Child's Guide to Maimonides' Ladder of Tzedakah” (copyright Regina Greenspun
and Janice S. Newman, 2009) http://www.greenspun.com/regina/tzedakah-
ladder.pdf

- "Teach Your Children Well: Tzedaka Restores Justice" (Rabbi David A. Teutsch), The
Forward Newspaper, Nov. 11, 2005 https://forward.com/culture/2235/teach-your-
children-well-tzedaka-restores-justice/ The Forward, Nov. 11, 2005