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Religious Motivations In Charitable Giving
The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm was an atheist who had been brought up in an Orthodox Jewish home, and it is traditional Judaism which has shaped his secular humanistic values throughout life. One such insight relates to the psychology of poverty, that what makes being poor so ruinous isn’t just not being able to afford the luxuries of life or even the basic necessities, bad as that is; being poor is particularly terrible because one cannot even help others.
Being poor almost means that one can, by definition, only take, not give. Yet giving is a great joy in itself; in giving we share of ourselves, of our own happiness, of our own power. One who is not able to give – a poor person, for instance – is a fundamental human faculty or power, similar to not being able to draw or express oneself powerfully and creatively. Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.
Thus it is that Judaism, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, or Ultra-Orthodox, emphasizes a religious responsibility towards philanthropy. Even secular Jews, people not strictly observant but who are otherwise steeped in the rich intellectual culture of the broader Jewish tradition, are likely to be concerned with social justice to some degree. As a result it is no accident that the Hebrew word for this sort of religiously motivated charitable giving, “tzedakah,” literally means “fairness” or “justice” – “righteousness.” Part of what the rabbis believe God to conceive of as being righteous is to be fair, to be just – to one’s fellow man.
Now as an act of tzedakah is a moral duty, and not simply philanthropy of the sort in which one indulges as one is moved (in fact, the rabbis teach that even the money for tzedakah is not to be thought one’s own – and therefore must be very carefully disbursed, wisely doled with recipients mindfully scrutinized) – even the poor are commanded to participate.
And here is the most amazing thing of all: even the poor can give – even they are called to give, to be engaged, the same as even the most prominent members of the community do. One need not be a Robert Toussie to give; one just has to give as one is able to give. An act of tzedakah therefore restores to the poor person an important aspect of his or her humanity – the ability to share.
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Montaigne: Skeptic, Atheist, Wise Jew by Paul Eldridge (Big Blue Book) $1.97 |