Beruflich Dokumente
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Parshat Re'eh
Jeffrey Levin
August 8, 2010
M
Y FATHER OF BLESSED MEMORY used to joke with me that I was a product of an intermarriage.
My father's family were secular socialists and Labor Zionists. My great grandfather
Shmaryahu Levin was a member of the Bund and an early Zionist firebrand. He was among
the first Jews elected to serve in the very first Russian Duma or parliament. In the 1920s and 30s he
crossed the country with young Goldie Mabovitch, stirring up passions and raising needed funds for the
early Yishuv of eretz‐Yisrael. His oratory, Golda Meir reminisced in her autobiography, made her too
nervous to speak publicly when he was present. There is a town in Israel named after him.
My mother's family, on the other hand, Zionists all the same, were observant and orthodox headed up
by my great‐grandmother, Ita, the Rebbetzin everyone called her, who herself was a descendent of the
Vilna Gaon, the revered Sage of Vilna from my great‐grandmother's birthplace of Vilnius, Lithuania. At
the beginning of the holocaust the Japanese Consul General of Vilnius took pity on my great‐
grandmother. She was given a transit visa to Japan where she spent the war years. She spoke Russian,
Lithuanian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Mandarin, Japanese and English. She had a traditional Jewish
education which was very unusual for the women of her day, she had a deep grasp of all the holy books.
She had raised my mother. Dad would often tell Mom, "I married you for your grandmother!"
My father once told me, he never went to cheder or Hebrew School, so he didn't have direct exposure to
the traditional religious texts but rather he went to a relatively secular "Yiddish school".
"So! Then what did you learn in Yiddish school," I asked?
Dad had the mind of a steel trap, and he loved to memorize and recite poetry. So to answer my
question, he fed me back lines from the last stanza of a poem he once heard. This is what he learned in
Yiddish school:
W
hen I was 4 years old, my socialist grandpa, Grandpa Levin, would joke, "now that the
Rebbetzin has taught you aleph bes, and chumash mit Rashi (the Torah with Rashi's
commentary), I can now teach you to read Das Kapital in Yiddish!" Occasionally Grandpa
Levin liked to read me stories in Yiddish, and I especially remember enjoying the stories of Sholem
Aleichem, whose Yiddish writings about the old country are often compared to Mark Twain's writings in
English. In his book, Tevye the Milkman, Sholem Aleichem introduces us to Nahum Die Schnorer. We
know him as "Nahum the Beggar" from the play and movie "Fiddler on the Roof".
In the story, Nahum the Beggar approaches Tevye the Milkman and requests his weekly tzedakah.
Tevye has fallen on hard times so he cannot afford to pay his usual two kopeks. Tevye gives Nahum only
one kopek to which Nahum replies, "so if you're having a bad week, why should I suffer?"
Now here's the part that did not make it into the movie or the play. Nahum was a full‐time paid official
of the shtetl or the Jewish community. Just like the Rabbi, the Shammus (the one who took care of the
administration and maintenance of the synagogue)... or the teachers in the cheder or classroom. It was
Nahum's paid position to help ensure that each and every member of the community fulfilled the
mitzvah of giving tzedakah, which he made sure you did, week after week. Nahum the Beggar was given
a living wage and lived and dressed like any other treasured member of the Jewish community. He
certainly did not look like, dress like, or live like a beggar! Nahum's other job was to disseminate
tzedakah throughout the community, or as Grandpa Levin would say, "to each according to his needs".
Today we'd not call him a beggar at all. He'd be called the head of the Jewish Federation!
For there to be actual beggars in the streets of the shtetl, this would have been considered a "shanda fur
die goyim", something that would cause shame to fall upon Jewish community before non Jews. It was
with a sense of pride that Jews of Eastern Europe watched ever so carefully and closely over the social
fabric of their communities by providing for the needy in their midst.
At the core of Sholem Aleichem's vignette is how Nahum humorously seems more concerned with
raising money than the donor's personal economic downturn or his ability to pay the established
amount. "You've had a bad week. Why should I suffer?" Is this vanilla humor, or is there something
intrinsically Jewish about Nahum's approach? (I know you've fallen on hard times but give anyway!) To
answer that question we have to go visit my Great Grandma, the Rebbetzin's house where she would
have looked into this week's parshah for an answer.
I
n this week's parshah, parshat Re'eh, it says, if there be poor man among you, you shall pay him
"sufficient for his needs, in that which he lacks". Note the Torah does not state that tzedakah
should be limited to or governed by one's ability to pay. The focus is and remains solely on the
needy. And by remaining focused on needs alone, tzedakah becomes the art of the possible.
Concerning this verse, Tractate Kethubot of the Babylonian Talmud offers this d'rash:
Let's deconstruct what the rabbis are telling us. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar!
Imagine that it is the 6th year of the 7‐year sabbatical cycle. Lenders don't want to lend because there is
no guarantee their loans will ever be repaid. There were no credit default swaps. Loans have become
toxic. There was no Fed; there are no buyouts. Credit totally dries up. All loans become wiped clean,
according to Torah, in the 7th year of the sabbatical cycle. With no lending, everything comes to a halt!
An economic depression ensues. Hit particularly hard are the merchants, the lifeblood of the civic
economy, who depend on loans to get them through challenging economic downturns. People fall on
hard times, they lose their livelihood.
There are many outward signs that this gentleman has fallen on hard times. But what of the inner scars,
the ones that are more difficult to see?
The failure of a person to provide for oneself carries with it a heavy toll on the psyche. A person who is
fallen on hard times usually suffers the effects of depression and shame, the loss of dignity and self‐
respect. Hillel not only recognizes the need for refuat ha‐guf, caring for the physical needs of the
gentlemen, but also for refuat ha‐nefesh, the restoration of his spiritual dignity‐‐making the gentleman
feel whole once again. It should be obvious to us that we need to provide for food, clothing and shelter
for all who lack in these basic necessities. But Hillel goes further and buys the gentleman a horse. And
when he could not find a servant to run before the horse and shout, "make way for my Master Mr. So
and So" Hillel himself, the leader of the Jewish community, he himself, took off from work and ran
before the gentleman's horse for a distance of 3 miles declaring "Make way for my Master, Mr. So and
So”.
This isn't about restoring a man to a lifestyle to which he had been accustomed. This would be a gross
misinterpretation of what the Talmud is trying to teach us. This is about the restoration of human
dignity and self respect. Losing one's livelihood or being in a state of perennial need is demeaning,
embarrassing, humiliating and shameful. The objective of tzedakah should be to minimize these effects.
Thus we read in Tractate Hagigah (5b) that when Rabbi Yannai saw a certain man giving a coin to a poor
person in public in front of everyone, R. Yannai said, "It would be better not to have given tzedakah to
him than to have given it in such a way that you put him to shame!"
M aimonides in Mishneh Torah remarks, "We have never seen or heard of a Jewish
community without a Tzedakah fund." (Presumably they each had their own professional
schnorers, paid by the community to collect and administer the fund.)
The mitzvah of tzedakah, which is often mistranslated as "charity"; in my view it is better translated as
"social justice". Tzedek, the root of the word Tzedakah means justice. Judaism commands not charity
but social justice. We give of ourselves not because it is nice, but because it is right!
The Mitzvah of Tzedakah is universal. By that, I mean none are exempt‐‐not even the poor.
Think about it! Even a person dependent on tzedakah must himself or herself give tzedakah.
The determining factor as to how much should raised for tzedakah is not as much based upon an
individual assessments as it is focused upon a communally‐based goals or objectives. You will know that
you have given enough only when every member of the community can, in turn, afford to give. The
habit of universal giving is the communal goal. Here the process is the goal.
But on the face of it, the rule that even the needy must give might seem a bit absurd. Why give one
person enough money so that he can give to yet another and yet another? Giving directly to the other
person would be so much more logical, practical and efficient. What the rabbis understood, however, is
that the act of giving is an essential part of human dignity. The rabbinic insistence that the entire
community provide the poor with enough money so that they themselves can give is indeed a most
profound insight into the human condition and the redemptive qualities of tzedakah.
W
HEN WE REDEEM others in our community, so we ourselves become redeemed. As
Maimonides writes: "Israel is redeemed only through tzedakah, as it is said, “Zion shall be
redeemed with judgment and those that return by tzedakah” (Isaiah 1:27) for all Jews and
all those attached to them [Jew and non‐Jew alike] are like brothers, as it is said, “You are all sons of the
Lord your G‐d” (Deut.14:1), and if a brother will not show mercy to his brother, who then will have
compassion on him?
These words were the lingua franca in the homes of my father and all my grandparents.
I conclude with the traditional prayer our rabbis say to welcome a new month. As we enter the final
month of Elul which begins a few days hence, this year draws to a close; and a new year draws nigh, may
all in our community, Jews and non‐Jews alike, the citizen and the stranger who lives among us, be
blessed with a shanah shel bracha v'parnesah v'kalkalah, a year of blessing, fulfilling work, and
economic vitality, hayim she ayn bahem busha ukh'lima, lives free from reproach and shame, shanah
she'ymallu meshe'elot Lebeynu l'tovah, a year in which all our heart‐felt desires for goodness will be
fulfilled. May it be Your will, ken yehi ratzon!
CSH
HANDOUT
SOURCE TEXTS
Deuteronomy 15:7‐11
“If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your G‐d is
giving you, do not be hardhearted or tight‐fisted toward your poor brother. Rather be open‐handed and
freely lend him sufficient for his needs in that which he lacks. Be careful not to harbor this
wicked thought: "The seventh year, the year for cancelling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill
will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the Lord against you, and
you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because
of this the Lord your G‐d will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There
will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open‐handed toward your
brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”
Babylonian Talmud Ketubot 67b
"Sufficient for his need" – means that you are commanded to maintain him, but you are not
commanded to make him rich. "That which he lacks" – means even a horse to ride on and a
servant to run before him. It is told of Hillel the elder [head of the Jewish community in the first century
BCE] that he bought for a certain poor man of an aristocratic family a horse to ride on and a servant to
run before him. On one occasion he could not find a servant to run before him, so he himself ran before
him for three miles.
Maimonides Hilchot Matanot Aniyim
Chapter 10 Halachah 1
We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of tzedakah than any other
positive commandment because tzedakah is the sign of the righteous, the seed of Abraham our father,
as it is said, “For I know him that he will command his children to do tzedakah.” The throne of
Israel and the religion of truth is upheld only through tzedakah, as it is said, “In tzedakah shall you be
established” (Isaiah 54: 14). Israel is redeemed only through tzedakah, as it is said, “Zion shall be
redeemed with judgement and those that return by tzedakah” (Isaiah 1:27) . . . All Jews and those
attached to them are like brothers, as it is said, “You are sons of the Lord your G‐d” (Deut.14:1), and if a
brother will not show mercy to his brother, who then will have mercy on him?
Maimonides ibid.
Chapter 9 Halachah 3
We have never seen or heard of a Jewish community without a tzedakah fund.
NOTE: The act of giving tzedakah was considered such a universal mitzvah that even the poor are not
excused from the obligation of regular giving.
An Anonymous Poem