Shabbat Shalom. I’ve entitled my teaching this morning “the Power of Tzedakah.”
I chose this topic because it brings together two threads of Jewish tradition that have grown in importance to me in recent years. One is Talmud; the other is Tzedakah, I wanted to see what the first had to say about the second –how Talmud could help Tzedakah become more meaningful for me.
I became interested in the world of fundraising through my initial work on the capital campaign for our own building. Some of you may have been the beneficiaries of my apprenticeship. You can let go of your wallets. I’m not asking for anything from the bimah – today.
My current interest in fundraising comes from my position as the vice president for development for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, known more lovingly as the JRF. This is the national organization of our movement that provides services to our more than 100 congregations across the country. The siddur that we are using today was published by the Reconstructionist Press, one of the services of the JRF. The JRF is also the organizing force behind our Reconstructionist camp and new youth movement.
My interest in the Talmud comes primarily from the adult education classes that we have held for the past two years with Ilyse Kramer, whom many of you met a few weeks ago when she gave a guest d’var Torah. While just a taste of Talmud study, it was enough to make me curious about how the sages two thousand years ago could help me in my understanding of Tzedakah.
Finally, I attended a session of the JRF’s Torah of Money seminar on how to incorporate a discussion of values into the fundraising process, in order to make it consistent with everything else we do as Reconstructionists.
The first lesson I learned is that Tzedakah is as central to Judaism as the Shema itself. When we say the Shema, we include the phrase “b’chol l’vavcha, uv’chol nafshcha uv’chol meodacha,” which our siddur translates as loving God “with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all you have.” The earliest understanding of this phrase directly ties “meod” to your material wealth.
Our ancestors considered material wealth a loan, so to speak, from God to us while we are here to use it. The Talmud says “give unto God what is God’s, seeing that you and what you have are God’s.” In addition, the Talmud is clear that Tzedakah is not just a nice thing to do, but a requirement for everyone: “Even the beggar who is maintained by charity must himself practice charity.”
In that spirit, not only does the receiver benefit from Tzedakah, but the giver does as well. “More than the householder does for the beggar, the beggar does for the householder.” And more directly, the Talmud says that “Tzedaka is equal to all the other precepts put together.”
All of this is probably not news to you sitting here in our sanctuary. During our capital campaign, we received pledges from over 90% of our congregants at the time. For many of us, these were the largest single gifts that we had ever given or may ever give. And for those who have never had the feeling of walking into this building and knowing that you were essential in its making, I hope you will get that opportunity.
My interest today, though, is not the large multi-year commitment that typifies a capital campaign, but the more annual gift-giving that is part of our everyday lives. How do we make this process value-driven. Put another way, how do we make these gifts a reflection of our own values?
I think that check-writing should be the end point of an evaluation of our values. We need to identify those things that are most important to us and make the act of Tzedaka an affirmative statement about those values.
The fact is, there are so many more worthy places to send our money than we possibly have money to give. Despite the potential for the expanding pie, the reality is that we can’t give to every worthy cause nor give as much to those causes as we would like.
For instance, one value that I have always felt strongly about is helping someone reach self-sufficiency. And, again, the Talmud has something to say about this: “Superior is the one who lends money to the poor than the giver of alms; and best of all is the one who invests money with a poor person in partnership.”
In the past couple of years, I have begun giving to Yachad because I like its Sukkot in April program, where we go as a congregation with hammer and saw to work on the home of a person in need, so the person can become more self-sufficient. It’s not a great sum of money that I give, but I hope to give more each year. And the organization not only reflects an important value that I believe in, but it also allows me – and my teenage daughter – to participate in the work itself.
In that sense, Yachad has made a connection to me and I have responded and hope to continue to respond. And that is the other point I want to make. As a fundraiser for the JRF, we are working very hard to make a stronger statement about our values as an organization and the actual value that we provide our congregations. A recent survey we took showed that most members of Reconstructionist congregations don’t really know what the national organization does. We have not met our responsibility to provide potential donors the motivation to give. This is something I hope to help correct, because giving our movement financial self-sufficiency is essential to its survival and growth. But this will not happen if we don’t ourselves clearly establish these values, and their importance to the lives of our constituents.
Just as we as donors must establish our values and act on them through Tzedakah, the solicitors themselves must clearly identify their own values in a way that connects with those we are soliciting. It cannot be a passive stance of knowing our value and letting people come to us; we have to go to our potential donors where they are.
It is truly worth the effort, and not just in the material sense of having more monetary support, as important as that is.
When a connection is made – when a donor’s values meet those values of a worth cause – I believe there is a spark, a holy spark that empowers both the organization receiving and the person giving. The Power of Tzedakah.
Shabbat Shalom