AUGUST 29 • 2024 | 53

sympathize with 
him in his plight, 
as it is said, ‘Have 
I not wept for 
those in trouble? 
Has not my soul 
grieved for the 
poor?’” (Job 30:25) 
Laws of Gifts to 
the Poor, 10:4

TWO LAWS
This is the logic behind two laws 
that are otherwise inexplicable. 
The first is: “Even a poor person 
who is dependent on tzedakah is 
obliged to give tzedakah.” Laws of 
Gifts to the Poor, 7:5
The law seems absurd. Why 
should we give money to the 
poor so that they may give to 
the poor? It makes sense only 
on this assumption, that giving 
is essential to human dignity 
and tzedakah is the obligation 
to ensure that everyone has that 
dignity.
The second is this famous 
ruling of Maimonides: “The 
highest degree of charity, 
exceeded by none, is when a 
person assists a poor Jew by 
providing him with a gift or a 
loan or by accepting him into 
a business partnership or by 
helping him find employment 
— in a word by putting him in a 
situation where he can dispense 
with other people’s aid.” Laws of 
Gifts to the Poor, 10:7
Giving someone a job or 
making him your partner would 
not normally be considered 
charity at all. It costs you 
nothing. But this further serves 
to show that tzedakah does not 
mean charity. It means giving 
people the means to live a 
dignified life, and within the 
Jewish value system, any form of 
employment is more dignified 
than dependence.
We have in this ruling of 
Maimonides in the 12th century 

the principle 
that Muhammad 
Yunus 
rediscovered in 
our time, and 
for which he 
was awarded the 
Nobel Prize: the 
idea of micro-
loans enabling 
poor people 
to start small 
businesses. It is a very powerful 
idea.
In contradistinction to 
many other religious systems, 
Judaism refused to romanticize 
poverty or anesthetize its pain. 
Faith is not what Karl Marx 
called “the opium of the people.” 
The rabbis refused to see poverty 
as a blessed state, an affliction 
to be born with acceptance and 
grace. Instead, the rabbis called it 
“a kind of death” and “worse than 
fifty plagues.” 
They said, “Nothing is harder 
to bear than poverty, because he 
who is crushed by poverty is like 
one to whom all the troubles of 
the world cling and upon whom 
all the curses of Deuteronomy 
have descended. If all other 
troubles were placed one side 
and poverty on the other, poverty 
would outweigh them all.”
Maimonides went to the heart 
of the matter when he said: “The 
well-being of the soul can only 
be obtained after that of the body 
has been secured.” The Guide for 
the Perplexed, 3:27
Poverty is not a noble state. You 
cannot reach spiritual heights if 
you have no food to eat, no roof 
over your head, if you lack access 
to medical attention or if you are 
beset by financial worries. I know 
of no saner approach to poverty, 
welfare and social justice than 
that of Judaism. Unsurpassed 
in its time, it remains the 
benchmark of a decent society to 
this day. 

QUESTIONS TO PONDER
• What are the key differences 
between charity and social justice 
in Judaism? 
• If you are short on funds 
yourself, what are some other 
ways you can give tzedakah?
• Why do you think there is such 
an emphasis on preserving 
individual dignity when giving 
tzedakah?

From Manna to Meat
T

he parshah discusses the 
availability to eat meat. The 
subject is introduced in a 
unique manner. “When Hashem 
will broaden your borders (after 
you have conquered the Land of 
Israel and driven out the seven 
Canaanite nations) and you will 
desire to eat meat ...” 
Rashi, the classic biblical 
commentator, writes, “In 
the desert it was forbidden 
to eat meat. Only after the 
Jews entered the land was it 
permissible to eat meat.”
Aside from the 
relevance of allowing us 
to eat meat provided it is 
slaughtered and prepared 
in accordance with the 
laws of kosher, there is a 
deeper interpretation of 
these verses. The Jews in 
the desert had all of their needs 
provided. They ate manna from 
heaven, drank from the well of 
Miriam, were sheltered by the 
clouds of glory, etc. They spent 
their days immersed in Torah 
and serving the Almighty. At 
that time, their energies were 
geared toward the pursuit and 
acquisition of the holy and the 

spiritual. Physical desires were 
out of place. 
The Jews who entered Israel, 
on the other hand, were faced 
with derech eretz, working for a 
living. Upon their entering the 
land, they were to conquer the 
seven nations. Each nation in 
the Bible is an allegorical 
representation of a specific 
character trait. Good 
nations represent good 
traits, etc. The seven 
Canaanite nations represent 
our seven animalistic 
emotions. Faced with the 
challenges of making a 
living and being involved 
with the world, the Torah 
teaches us that it is OK to 
desire meat, meaning to 
have desires for physical 
pleasure. 
The Torah continues with a 
warning, “Only do not eat the 
blood.” Do not put all of your 
excitement into the pleasures 
but use the pleasure to serve the 
Almighty. 

Rabbi Herschel Finman is co-director (with 

his wife Chana) of Jewish Ferndale, www.

rabbifinman.com.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Hershel 
Finman

Parshat 

Re’eh: 

Deuteronomy 

11:26-16:17; 

Isaiah 54:11-

55:5.

