צדקה

Tzedakah- righteousness, justice, virtue

The biblical view of Tzedakah, most often represented by the word righteousness, inherently revolves around relationships. This includes relationships between God and humanity, humans with each other, groups of humans with other groups of humans, and so forth.

Through the biblical lens, we clearly see that God cares deeply about how humans behave at every level of civilization. To put it in simple terms, tzedakah is a state of being in which a person or community lives in right relationship with God and other humans.

There is a close relationship between tzedakah and God’s law, which was gifted to Israel to guide her in justice and worship. This is apparent in the famous passage where Jesus is asked, “What is the Law’s greatest commandment?” to which he replies:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37)

Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6 here, and tapping into the Jewish tradition of tzedakah. In Jesus’s mind, a person is righteous when they keep the law, and one keeps the whole law when they love God and their neighbors to the fullest.

So much of scripture is spent describing how this love should look. In communities, there should be provisions made for the immigrant, the widow, and the orphan (Exodus 10:19-20). When someone has wronged another person, restitution should be made by the offender to the victim. (Exodus 22:4) When a treaty is signed or a promise made, it should be kept (Exodus 22:9). Businesses should buy and sell fairly (Leviticus 25). Governments should work for the benefit of all of their citizens (Psalm 94), and families should take care of their relatives (Leviticus 19:32).

Many of today’s social justice and charity movements around the world find their roots in this Hebraic idea of tzedakah.

When humans fail to do these things, unrighteousness abounds. Corruption, injustice, greed, selfishness, exploitation, dishonesty, oppression, and hypocrisy root themselves in society and in human hearts to the detriment of both when the law of God and the value of tzedakah is ignored.

At the core of these symptoms is an improper relationship between humans and their Creator. When humans fail to recognize God’s authority and laws and trust in him, we descend into chaos and destroy the very creation God loves and desires to bless.

God’s own grace and tzedakah towards humanity is a constant gift that allows us to worship and love him with all of our “heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Only when we accept that gift do we find we are able to be made righteous and be a true image-bearer of God and his tzedakah.

Questions to Consider:

1. What relationships in my life are “not right”? What can I do to change that?
2. In what ways can I execute tzedakah towards those in need in my local community?
3. Do I ultimately trust that God’s instructions are designed to help me and those around me flourish?