This week: Tzedakah — it's not charity, it's justice
Money & Mitzvot — Week 3
Tzedakah — it's not charity, it's justice
This week's theme: Tzedakah & Maaser — the obligation to give
The word tzedakah (tzeh-dah-KAH) comes from the root tzedek — justice. That's not an accident.
Jewish law frames giving not as a generous, optional act but as an obligation: the poor have a legal and moral claim on a portion of your resources. The Torah doesn't ask you to be generous. It tells you that some of what you earn was never entirely yours to begin with.
That reframe changes everything. It removes the congratulation from giving. You're not a hero for writing a check — you're settling a debt. And that framing, counterintuitively, turns out to produce better outcomes: more giving, less dependency, and more dignity for the recipient.
📚 Teaching It
K–6 (The Corner of the Field): Kids learn about pe'ah (pay-AH) — the Torah's command in Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:9 that farmers leave the corners of their fields unharvested for the poor. The concept: sharing isn't optional charity, it's built into the harvest itself. This week's activity has kids create a "community corner" in the classroom.
High School (Rambam's Ladder): Students work through Rambam's 8 levels of tzedakah — from the lowest (giving grudgingly, when asked) to the highest (helping someone become self-sufficient so they no longer need to receive). The big question: why does Rambam rank independence higher than generosity? What does that say about how Judaism thinks about poverty and human dignity?
🍽️ Three Questions for the Dinner Table
- If tzedakah is an obligation — not charity — does it count as a mitzvah the same way? Is there spiritual credit in doing something you were required to do anyway?
- Rambam's highest level of giving is helping someone become self-sufficient. Can you think of an example — from history, from our community, or from our family — where that kind of help was given or received?
- Should kids have a maaser (tithing) obligation? If a child earns $20 doing chores, are they obligated to give $2 away? Why or why not?
🏠 Living It
Maaser kesafim (mah-uh-SAIR keh-sah-FEEM) — monetary tithing — is the practice of giving 10% of your income to tzedakah. It's widely observed as a halachic (Jewish legal) obligation, though its precise source is debated: whether it's biblical, rabbinic, or strongly customary. Most contemporary poskim treat it as binding regardless of category.
Practical questions worth discussing with your family:
- Gross vs. net: Most contemporary poskim (legal authorities) permit calculating maaser on after-tax income, though some hold to gross. Pick one approach and stick with it.
- Day school tuition: Most authorities (including Rav Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe, Yoreh De'ah 1:143) rule that day school tuition does not count as maaser — because the giver receives a direct benefit. A subset of poskim permit counting tuition for families in genuine financial hardship. Ask your rabbi.
- Synagogue dues: Most authorities — including Rav Moshe Feinstein — rule that dues do not count as maaser because the giver receives benefit from membership. A subset permit counting portions that fund explicit chesed activities (food pantry, refugee assistance, chesed fund) where there is no personal benefit. Ask your rabbi.
- Setting up a giving plan: Consider a dedicated "tzedakah account" — even a simple spreadsheet or a donor-advised fund (DAF) — that tracks income and giving. It makes maaser a habit rather than a year-end scramble.
💭 Reflection: If you sat down today and actually calculated 10% of your household income, would it be more or less than what you currently give? What would it feel like to commit to that number?
📖 Source of the Week
"If there is among you a poor person, one of your brothers, in any of your towns within your land... you shall open wide your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need."
— Devarim (Deuteronomy) 15:7-8
Week 3 of 10 · Money & Mitzvot · moneyandmitzvot.com