One
great ancient and ingrained Jewish tradition is tzedaka. While the word is commonly rendered as
"charity" in English translations, the word actually means
"justice." Everyone is
obligated to help someone less fortunate then himself/herself.
Jews are
frequently accused of being clannish; this is in no small measure a spin by our
enemies upon our tendencies to help our own who are in need. During the great immigration waves to America
of the early 1900's, newly-arrived Jewish immigrants were given extensive aid
by various organizations and individuals within the American Jewish
community. One such recipient of this
tzedaka was my great-grandmother, who arrived here a widow with three young
daughters (my grandmother being one of them).
One hundred years later, my great-grandmother's descendants have
returned this tzedaka many times over (even when adjusted to current dollars),
not only to the Jewish community but to America as a whole. And this does not count a multi-millionaire
cousin of mine who is active in some well-known charitable organizations.
And so,
before I left for my current excursion to Israel, many members of my
congregation gave me tzedaka money to distribute to Israel's needy.
Problem: I have a dollar of tzedaka to distribute (there
are many money changer businesses in the city, some within a few meters of one
another, all thriving in the tourist trade; changing that dollar bill into
shekels would be no problem whatsoever for the recipient). To which of these supplicants should I give
that dollar:
A)
Woman on street, single mom with 5 kids, says she needs money to feed
her kids for the Sabbath (Shabbat).
B)
Woman, divorced within past month, 2 young children at home and one
teenager learning in yeshiva, ex-husband has severely limited wherewithal to
provide support, woman got house as a result of the divorce, but is struggling
to keep it. House has 4 bedrooms, plus a
basement apartment that can be rented out.
Sufficient food in kitchen to feed woman, her three children, plus 3
guests. House has air conditioning.
Ceteris paribus, that tzedaka dollar would go
to Woman A. And that is to whom I gave a
$10 bill.
Except …
Except that Woman A has an attitude. She was berating me for not giving her more,
she wants me to buy here entire Shabbat meals (the street upon which she asks
alms has a significant amount of foot traffic), and she wants me to buy her all
kinds of other things.
What to do?
When I got back to the car, my son (who is
now living in the city) told me that he is familiar with that woman, and she
has a reputation; she really is needy but that does not stop her from having
the attitude.
But Woman B happens to be my son's
ex-landlady. And before we came, he
realized that his erstwhile apartment, in the basement of Woman B's house, was
vacant, so he convinced his former landlady to rent it out to me and my wife
for a week.
Well, it turns out that the rate Woman B was
charging us was quoted to us in error.
Her ex-husband had theretofore handled the rental of the apartment, but
now the house is all hers. She had
somehow gotten the wrong figure for the rent from the records left by her ex,
and had charged us approximately 700 shekels less than the true rental value of
the apartment.
Our son was (and has remained) on good terms
with his former landlady; his reasons for relocating to his current quarters 2
blocks away had nothing to do with her or her now former husband. Ms. B accordingly was able to approach my son
and inform her of the situation. When
our son apprised us of it, we decided to give Ms. B an additional 700 shekel
for the apartment.
This act of tzedaka went beyond the 700
shekels, however, because when the next tenant comes in (she seems to be on the
verge of consummating a deal with someone), Ms. B will receive an appropriate
amount of rent.
As for Ms. A, with her welfare entitlement
mentality, she may well continue to take advantage of the kindness of
tzedaka-minded visitors. But I will not
be one of them.
Labels: Entitlements, Israel, Tzedaka
