“Palindromic Tzedakah”

In the February issue of our Temple Beth El “Voice,” Arthur Kramer issued a challenge to all of us to come up with the best palindrome – a word or phrase which reads identical forwards or backwords. I would like to share a particularly enlightening one I heard recently.

My (contest winning, I hope!) palindrome is a Hebrew one – the Hebrew word: v’natnu

V’natnu means: “And you will give.” Whether you read this word forwards or backwords in Hebrew, it means the same thing. This might teach us: whenever one does tzedakah, this act of giving will return back and benefit the one who gave. Tzedakah is, in its most pure and most meaningful form, a reciprocal act, one which benefits both the giver and receiver.

Recently, I received a beautiful note accompanied by a generous donation to assist the Temple in our work of tzedakah, to help those in need. The giver, who asked to remain anonymous, in the spirit of Jewish tradition, made a strong point: “There needs to be,” he wrote, “ more effort to encourage members of the Jewish community to see the doing of Tzedakah as a religious obligation.”

He is correct. To do tzedakah, to participate in acts of loving kindness, is not only a Jewish religious obligation (mitzvah), it is the highest possible such act. There is nothing more important than tzedakah. In the mishnah, we learn: “The world is sustained by three things – by Torah, by Worship, and by Acts of Loving kindness.” If our Torah/ Learning and our Worship/ Turning towards God do not lead us to lives filled with righteous acts of loving kindness, then we are nothing.
 
People sometimes ask me how to make their lives more spiritual, how to find more meaning in their religious striving. For me, at least, one of the most direct paths to spirituality is that which leads through tzedakah. Caring, giving, sharing, making a difference in the lives of others and in our world are the most sure way to a sense of meaning. There are many important mitzvot in our Jewish tradition, but none more compelling than those which bid us to help others, to do acts which make a difference, to be loving and kind and generous.
 
On the front cover of this bulletin you will find two examples of such mitzvot. The example Carol and the late Joe Voynow set by making Temple Beth El a recipient of their Tzedakah ought to inspire us all. We are grateful to Carol for keeping alive Joe’s great love for our Temple and our people. May we all be inspired to do so as well.

In addition, I invite you to join with us this month in Mitzvah Day. This is another wonderful way to make Tzedakah a real part of all of our lives. “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah – one mitzvah leads to another.” One who does one act of tzedakah, of giving, will find that the giving returns back again and again

James M. Bennett