Handouts:

Handout 1Print Handout 1

Sacred Giving: A Story

A Story

In New York there is a Soup Kitchen, a place where people can come for dinner one evening a week, which is run by volunteers from the rabbinical school that houses the program.

People who come for dinner are referred to as “guests”. They are seated at small round tables, where they can talk and hear one another. Guests are served their food by the students. There is no lining up and no institutional-style seating.

There are flowers at the center of each table. The flowers are plastic, but they’re pretty and pleasantly arranged.

Often there will be a student with musical ability playing during dinner. One student might have a collection of buttons and is repairing guests’ coats while they are eating. There are warm clothes to take, as well as toiletries – soap, shampoo, toothbrushes – if any of the “guests” need them.

The students who organize the Soup Kitchen hold fundraisers to help pay the bills and welcome the help of people who are willing to come.

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The students who run this Soup Kitchen know that even though they supply important nutritional needs to their guests, it’s not just about the food!

• What would you say is a major concern of the organizers, beyond the issue of hunger? What evidence do you see of that?
  
  
• Sometimes we are so pre-occupied with WHAT we do that we forget the importance of HOW we do it! What can you say about the rabbinical students who run the Soup Kitchen?

Teacher Note: Optional - Plan a class visit to a local Soup Kitchen. Plan, in conjunction with a local sponsoring philanthropic organization, what the class might bring or do at the time of the visit to provide something ‘extra’ in addition to the nutrition that the meal provides. If your class goes to help at a local Soup Kitchen, be ready to eat after the guests have finished and to study some Jewish texts along with your food.

Handout 2Print Handout 2

Sacred Giving: How?

• Even a poor person who is kept alive by Tzedakah funds must give tzedakah from what he receives.
  Shulchan Aruch
  Yoreh De’ah 248:1
  
  
• There was a Secret Chamber in the Temple where pious people would leave money in secret, and those who had become poor would come and take in secret.
  Mishnah Shekalim 5:6
  
  
• If a person convinces others to give, his reward is even greater than when simply giving by himself.
  Shulchan Aruch
  Yoreh De’ah 249:5
  
  
• Rabbi Yannai once saw a man give Tzedakah to a poor man in public. He said to him, “It would have been better not to give, than giving as you did, causing him shame.”
  Chagiga 5a
  
  
• A penny here and a penny there add up to a great sum.
  Nachman of Bratslav
  
  
• R. Joshua b. Korha said, “He who closes his eyes to a request for charity is considered as one who worships idols.’
  Bava Batra 10a
  
  
• A Jew should give charity to poor non-Jews.
  Rambam, Mishneh Torah
  Gifts to the Poor 7:7
  
  
• R. Eleazar stated 'The reward of charity depends entirely upon the extent of kindness in it.'
  Sukkah 49a

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The above texts about tzedakah say a lot. They also contain invisible ethical messages. Read the invisible ethical messages listed below.  Analyze and interpret each invisible ethical message and place the number of the invisible ethical message after each of the texts above that contain the value found in that particular invisible ethical messages :

1. Tzedakah is about the dignity of the recipient.
2. Tzedakah is about the dignity of the donor.
3. Limited means doesn’t matter in the world of tzedakah.
4. We should be models of tzedakah-behavior.
5. The donor and the recipient of tzedakah are rewarded.
6. Tzedakah matters.
7. In the matter of giving tzedakah, the way you give counts!
8. There is a balance of needs that have to be taken into account when giving tzedakah.
9. Tzedakah is not just about money.
10. Tzedakah: You must do it!

Note: Each text may have more than one applicable statement; some will have several.

Handout 3Print Handout 3

The (Any Number of) Commandments of Tzedakah

Stories and texts convey values. Rules create real-life reminders and rules based on those values provide us with an ethical formula for our lives.

Analyze the values found in the texts in Attachment Two: Sacred Giving: How?

Paraphrase one of the texts and create a personal response in the form of a commandment that expresses a Jewish tzedakah tradition. The commandment might be positive (“Do…..”) or negative (“Don’t…..”).

Select your text and retell it in the form of a rule in the chart below:

The Text	The Commandment Derived from the Text

Philanthropy Framework: