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Photo: Adiel Michaeli
There are many models of charity, each having a great level of importance and meaning
Photo: Adiel Michaeli

Making charity last

Op-ed: The vision of sustainable giving is critical for our national fight against poverty because it instills within people the understanding that if they don’t motivate themselves to change, their destiny will remain the same.

Among the many highlights of the High Holy Days prayer services of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, many identify the ultimate peak when we recite the words "But repentance, prayer and charity avert the severity of the decree."

 

 

This prayer presents an obvious question of why among the hundreds of positive commandments that are presented to us in Jewish practice, why is it that charity is placed alongside prayer as the ultimate dictator of our destiny for the coming year?

 

Though many think "tzedakah" is the Hebrew word for charity, the real word is actually "chessed." Charity is an act of virtue, where one is under no obligation to give, rather simply gives from the heart. Tzedaka, deriving from the word "tzedek," means justice, indicating that one gives because it is his obligation, his duty.

 

Because everything in the world ultimately belongs to and is entrusted to man by God, man must provide to others in need, as God provides for him. Just as we ask for assistance from God even though he owes us nothing, we too must help others and as such we are rewarded. If we give freely, God will give us freely.

 

It's not our job to judge the poor, it's our job to help them (Photo: Shutterstock)
It's not our job to judge the poor, it's our job to help them (Photo: Shutterstock)

 

But beyond the spiritual force behind charity and the potential it has to bring us closer to God, there is the very practical need which should be no less important in calling us to action. In Israel today, a startling percentage of the population is facing desperate poverty and the number of families and children under the poverty line is only growing each year.

 

This is by no means a modern-day problem and indeed poverty in the Holy Land has always been a part of our country’s reality. It was this reality which inspired the first Lubavitcher Rebbe to found Colel Chabad 227 years ago. While the situation was wholly different then and the very existence of a modern state of the Jews in this ancient land was not even yet a dream, the Rebbe understood that the sanctity of the land required an innovative and sustainable model to address the poverty which existed then and which continues to exist now.

 

There are many models of charity, from dropping a coin into a "pushka" before morning prayers, to giving a dollar to a beggar on the street corner, to dedicating a wing of a new children’s hospital. Each has a great level of importance and meaning, including a model which deserves a great amount of support - "sustainable charity."

 

Sustainable charity requires that we invest the time as caregivers in ensuring that the recipient will not need to have an outstretched hand for any longer than necessary. Admittedly, this ambition is far easier said than done when it comes to tackling a national poverty problem which is in every sense a crisis in terms of its proportions and cost.

 

But it doesn’t give us the excuse to say that we won’t try and it is this understanding which motivates one of our approaches to charity.

 

Many of the charitable endeavors upon which we as an organization embark are motivated by the question of will it make a long-term difference. When we provide food packages, we design them in a way not simply to feed but also to nourish. By promoting better dietary practices, we can best assure families will not only eat but will learn to cook more healthily.

 

Our educational programs are similarly designed for a vision for a future. The thousands of children we are blessed to help, many of whom are orphans or victims of broken homes, are given the tools and encouragement to overcome their challenges, not just on the short-term practical level but with an eye towards educational success through vocational training, scholarships and other tools that will put them on a road to success.

 

This vision of sustainable charity is critical for our national fight against poverty because it instills within people the understanding that if they don’t motivate themselves to change, their destiny will remain the same. We will never forget the importance of never turning away a person who stretches out their hand, but our experience has blessedly been that people - regardless how desperate their challenges- can and do embrace that message.

 

Because it's not our job to judge the poor, it's our job to help them.

 

In this spirit of real change, we look forward to our continued partnership in caring for those less fortunate and we jointly pray that this coming year will be one of peace, health and prosperity for all the people of Israel.

 

Rabbi Menachem Traxler is the director of volunteering for Colel Chabad, Israel’s longest running social services charity in Israel, helping needy Israeli families since 1788.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.22.15, 13:18
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