Tzedaka: What you need to know about Tithing and Charity - with Rabbi Michael Skobac

Tithing or giving 10% of our possessions appears in the Torah as a practice of the patriarchs. After Abraham's victory against the four kings, we're told that he gave 10% of the spoils to Malchit Tzedek, who was a priest of God. And as Jacob was fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, he pledged to give God 10% of whatever he receives from God. Later, the Torah legislated a number of different tithes, which effectively served as a taxation system in the land of Israel. Now we know that of the 12 tribes, the tribe of Levi, which included the family of the Kohanim, the priests, they were not given a portion of land in Israel. So the priests and the Levites were supported by the rest of the nation. And the system of tithing basically went as follows. A person who had produce, 2%, approximately 2% of one's produce went to the priests, to the Kohanim, and this was called truma. So the first 2%, let's say a person has 100 bushels. So two bushels off the top are going to go to the priest, and that is called truma. Now the priests were one family in the whole tribe of Levi. So there were more Levites than Kohanim, more Levites than priests. So more money had to be collected to support the Levites. And so from the rest of what remained, that's going to be 98 bushels left over, 10% of that went to the Levites, and that was called maaser. Maaser from the root eser. Eser means 10. So maaser basically means a 10. The tithe goes to the Levites. Now what's interesting is that the Levites had to give 10% of what they received to the priests. That was called shrumat maaser. So whatever the Levites got, they had to take 10% and they had to give it to the priests as well. Now there was a calendar that was a seven-year sabbatical cycle. We know that there was a biblical practice called the shemitah, where during the seventh year people were not allowed to work their land or harvest their land. They had to lay fallow. It was ownerless. And so in this seven-year cycle, during years number one and two and four and five, another 10% was taken and it was eaten by the owner in Jerusalem. So you yourself, you wouldn't give it to anyone else. You would take the next 10%, again after you gave 2% to the priest and then 10% to the Levites, you took another 10% in years number one, two, four and five, and you would take that produce and eat it in Jerusalem. And that was called maaser sheni, the second tithe. Now it wasn't always practical to ask someone to schlep all of that produce to Jerusalem. It could be that they had a lot of produce. Maybe they had crops where they had many, many hundreds of bushels of apples or whatever it was. So who's going to be able to go to Jerusalem and eat that many apples? So what they were able to do was to redeem that produce. If they weren't going to bring it to Jerusalem physically, they could basically take the monetary value of that produce, leave the produce at home, and now take that money and go to Jerusalem and spend the money in Jerusalem on food. Go to a fancy restaurant, buy a nice wine, whatever you're going to do. This is what happened with the second tithe. It's called the maaser sheni. But in years number three and six of this sabbatical cycle, you had that next 10%, the second 10%, went to the poor, and that was called maaser ani, the tithe for the poor. And there was actually another tithe that was given, and this was called the tithe of the animals. And here you would give 10% of your flocks, and it was given to the temple. And there were other ways in which the poor and those in need were supported. So I mentioned the Shemitah year, the sabbatical year. So in that seventh year, your produce that you had on your property was not yours. You couldn't use it. It was there available for anyone else to come onto your field and take it. And so poor people would definitely do that, and the priests and the Levites would certainly take what was available during the Shemitah year. But every year, there were other things that supported those in need. There was something called teah, which means the corner. So when people had a field, they had to leave a corner of the field unharvested. And again, anyone in need could go and take from the corner of the field. There was something called leket, which was when, let's say, for example, ears of corn would fall to the ground in the harvesting process. You were not allowed to pick up those ears of corn that fell down while you were harvesting. You had to leave it there for the poor. Or shichekah, which is when you had forgotten sheaves. You would take, for example, bundled wheat, and you'd make them into sheaves. And if you forgot one or two of them in the field, you couldn't go back and get it. You had to leave those forgotten sheaves for the poor and the needy. And there were similar laws for a vineyard, not just for your fields. In the vineyard, there was something called teret, which was when individual grapes fell to the ground during the harvest, you had to leave those grapes there for the poor to pick up. Or ololos, which were small clusters of grapes, and that also had to be left for the poor. So in the Bible, there was a whole system of tithes, basically, different ways in which those in need could be supported. These laws only applied to the produce of the land of Israel. So during the biblical times, if you were living in New York, for example, these laws had no application there, except for one thing that we'll see in a few minutes. Today, the laws of the sabbatical year still apply. And the laws of truma and maaser, again, the portion that was taken off for the priests, and the portion that was given to the Levites, these laws still apply. These are still separated from the food, but they're not given to the priests and the Levites. They are discarded in various ways. One of the interesting ways they're discarded is that all of the animals in the biblical zoo are basically sort of sold to priests. Priests sort of legally own all the animals in the biblical zoo, and you're allowed to feed the animals of priests this produce. The priests themselves are not allowed to eat it because to eat these separated tithes, like the truma, the priest has to be ritually pure. They can't have any contact with something that was bringing them to a state of ritual impurity. And the number one thing that makes us ritually impure is contact with someone or something that's dead. And so today, everyone is considered to be in the status of ritually impure because we've all had contact with someone that was dead or someone that was in the same room or the same building with someone that's dead. And we're not going to be able to remove that status without the red heifer, which is a different topic altogether. In any event, today in Israel, they still separate truma and maaser from the produce, but they are discarded. They're not eaten by the priest or the Levites. And even if you're living outside of Israel, if you're here in Toronto and you buy produce from the land of Israel, you still have to remove the truma and the maaser from this produce, even outside of Israel. Now, there is a universal practice for people living in Israel and out of Israel called another tithe. It's called maaser kesathim, the tithe of your money, tithing our income. And the sages debate whether this is a biblical commandment or a rabbinic requirement or just a custom. However, there is an independent biblical obligation of giving tzedakah. Aside from this practice of tithing your income, there's a separate idea, which is certainly a biblical requirement. Again, as I said, tithing your money, there's a dispute about whether it's actually a biblical commandment, but there is a biblical obligation to give tzedakah. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 15, verses 7 to 8, if there is a needy person among you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy fellow. Rather, you must open your hand and give him whatever is sufficient for his needs. Now, tzedakah is usually translated as charity, but it is a misleading translation. Charity is related to the Latin word caritas, from which we get our word charisma. And it has to do with feelings, like feeling charitable because of someone's plight. But tzedakah is not based upon anyone's feeling. It comes from the Hebrew word tzedek, which means justice, that which is right to do. Whether you feel like doing it or not, it is the right thing to do because we are not considered the ultimate owners of our possessions. We are considered to be stewards, and we have to follow God's instructions for how we make use of our resources. And giving to those in need is a requirement. It is what is just and right. It's not something that's optional based upon whether you feel charitable or you feel generous. Now, the relationship between tzedakah, which again is clearly a biblical commandment, and ma'aser kisafim, tithing your money, which again, I said there are three ways in which it's seen. It's a very complex relationship. How do we understand the relationship between the obligation biblically to give tzedakah and the practice, whether it's rabbinic or biblical or just a custom of giving one-tenth of our income? It's a very complex relationship. So for our purposes here now, I'm going to conflate these two ideas. The basic requirement is to give between 10 and 20 percent of our income to support the poor, to support Torah institutions, and any legitimate charitable cause. Many authorities say that this is calculated on our net income after taking off taxes and expenses. The formula for calculating this is complex and there are several online ma'aser calculators that will take you through the calculations. The strong recommendation, unless someone is in the category of a Warren Buffett or a Bill Gates, is not to give more than 20 percent. Many consider this or close to it an ideal. Many authorities say that ideally, if you can, you should give close to 20 percent of your income to tzedakah and 10 percent is considered the minimal amount. It's the minimal amount, unless of course someone is destitute and they can give obviously less than 10 percent but they have to give something. Maimonides, writing in the 12th century, delineated eight different levels of giving tzedakah. The lowest level of giving tzedakah is when you give to the poor but with an unpleasant disposition on your face, meaning that you're giving to them whatever they need but it's clear from your face that you're not happy about giving it and you have a rotten disposition, a rotten look on your face. One step up from that is to give less than what they actually need but to do it with a pleasant disposition. A step up from that is when you give what is needed and you do it pleasantly but only after you are asked. A step up from that is when you give to someone in need before you were actually asked by them. A step up from that is when the poor person knows their benefactor but the donor does not know who the recipient is. One step higher than that is when the donor knows who the recipient is but the recipient doesn't know the identity of the donor. A level higher than that is when the donor does not know who they are giving to and the poor person doesn't know who made the donation. It's interesting that in the holy temple in Jerusalem they had a chamber, a special chamber, where anyone could go in and you either would leave money there or you would take money out so no one knew what you were doing when you went in. Some person might go in and leave $100. Someone might go in and take out $50 and this was a way of protecting the anonymity of who is giving and who is receiving. Today the optimal way of giving zakat is for example donating to an organization that will distribute the money to the poor. So there you don't know who's receiving the money. The poor person doesn't know who gave it to them and that would be the second highest level of giving zakat. Maimonides says what's the highest level? The highest level is to give a poor person either an interest-free loan or a job meaning that you do what will help make them independent so they won't need to collect zakat in the future. The rabbis had a very dim view of welfare cheats because first of all it was thievery. They were stealing and secondly it discouraged people from giving charity. The Talmud in Tractate Ketubot 68a the rabbis taught if a man pretends to have a blind eye or a swollen belly or a shrunken leg he will not leave this world before actually coming into such a condition. However we should not be deterred by such charlatans. Rabbi Chaim of Sanz a great master from the 18th century said the merit of giving charity is so great that I am happy to give to a hundred beggars if even one of them might actually be needy. But some people however act as if they are exempt from giving charity to a hundred beggars if there is even a possibility that one of them might be a fraud. The truth is that in the eyes of the Torah this commandment to support those who are needy is considered to be one of the greatest commandments in the Torah. The Talmud teaches in Tractate Baba Batra 9a that charity is equal in importance to all the other commandments in the Torah combined.