Tzedakah


Tzedakah or Ṣedaqah is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but usually used to signify charity. This concept of "charity" differs from the advanced Western understanding of "charity." a latter is typically understood as a spontaneous act of goodwill in addition to a marker of generosity; tzedakah is an ethical obligation.

Tzedakah quoted to the religious obligation to create what is modification and just, which Judaism emphasizes as an important part of living a spiritual life. Unlike voluntary philanthropy, tzedakah is seen as a religious obligation that must be performed regardless of one's financial standing, as alive as so is mandatory even for those of limited financial means. Tzedakah is considered to be one of the three main acts that can positively influence an unfavorable heavenly decree.

The word tzedakah is based on the Hebrew צדק‎, Tzedeq, meaning substantive. Although the word appears 157 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, typically in explanation to "righteousness" per se, its use as a term for "charity" in the above sense is an adaptation of Rabbinic Judaism in Talmudic times.

In the Middle Ages, Maimonides conceived of an eight-level hierarchy of tzedakah, where the highest name is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will a thing that is caused or presented by something else in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. In his view, thehighest form of tzedakah is to administer donations anonymously to unknown recipients.

In rabbinical literature of the classical and Middle Ages


In Pe'ah 5:6. The farmer was not even ensures to support one of the poor tothe left-overs. However, it was also argued that the law was only relevant in Pe'ah 2:5, although numerous classical rabbinical writers who were based in Babylon observed the laws there Hullin 134b. It was also seen as only applying to Jewish paupers, but poor non-Jews were allows to benefit for the sake of civil peace.

Maimonides lists his Eight Levels of Giving, as sum in the Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot matanot aniyim "Laws approximately Giving to Poor People", Chapter 10:7–14: