Tzedakah — Righteous Giving
Tzedakah (righteousness/justice) is the Jewish concept of charitable giving — not a voluntary act of generosity but an obligation of justice, since one's wealth is ultimately entrusted from God.
Tzedakah (from tzedek — justice, righteousness) is often translated as 'charity' but is more accurately understood as 'justice-giving' — the redistribution of resources in accordance with what justice requires. Unlike charity (which is voluntary and at the giver's discretion), tzedakah is a legal obligation — the Torah mandates giving a tithe (10%) of one's income to the poor. Maimonides's Eight Levels of Tzedakah (from giving grudgingly at the lowest level to enabling someone to become self-sufficient at the highest) constitute one of the most sophisticated ethical analyses of giving in any tradition. The highest level is anonymous giving — where neither the giver nor the recipient knows the other's identity. The tradition establishes tzedakah as a social institution (not merely personal virtue) through the laws of pe'ah (leaving the corners of fields for the poor), leket (leaving fallen grain for gleaners), and shemitta (the sabbatical year when debts are released).
You shall surely open your hand to your poor and needy brother in your land.
Philosopher Peter Singer's 'effective altruism' movement — which argues that affluent people in wealthy countries have a moral obligation (not merely an option) to give substantially to those in poverty — echoes the Torah's framing of tzedakah as an obligation of justice rather than a voluntary act of generosity.
Torah
Written about in
- What Judaism says about justice
Tzedakah is usually translated as charity, but the root is tzedek, justice. In this framing giving is not generosity; it is handing over what was never entirely yours.