Everybody in America knows that April 15 is a special day. And, aside from a few IRS agents, no one likes it. Even though we are aware of all the important services and goods our tax dollars provide (from feeding hungry children to caring for the elderly to maintaining roads to defending the nation) we still don't like to pay taxes. We complain, we find ways to lessen our tax burden, and we even make a political movement out of paying less. Nobody likes giving taxes.
And of all the taxes most despised, the aid to the poor is the one most resented. We feel cheated of our hard-earned income, and assume that the recipients of welfare are living high on the hog at our expense. Lazy, shiftless, and selfish is how they are viewed, and many a political career is rising on their backs. In this contemporary debate, there are those who claim that the Bible is linked to the “traditional” values of self-reliance and private charity. “Returning” to those values, these people insist, will restore America’s ethical rigor and national vitality. And the first step toward such a restoration is to end the “culture of dependency” which keeps the poor on the rolls and siphons off the money we would otherwise use to invest in a booming economy.
What does the tradition present on this subject? This Week’s Torah portion, in fact, mandates providing special tithes for the Levite, the orphan, and the widow, three groups in Biblical Israel who had insufficient property to provide for themselves. Are these tithes voluntary? No. Are they mandated by the authority? Yes. Are they legislated by a central group? Yes. Looks like welfare is a traditional and very Biblical idea.
Which makes perfect sense. Since the whole world is God’s, and God provides for us all out of divine bounty and love, we have an obligation to care for those among us who need assistance. Since we are merely God’s caretakers, and God is the only true owner, we must use the resources God places in our hands to care for all of God’s creatures, particularly those least able to do so themselves. That responsibility isn’t optional, and it isn’t private: tzedakah is a tax, imposed by God on behalf of the needy in our midst.
Not only do we have a Jewish duty to provide for the poor, but we’re even supposed to enjoy it!
In speaking of the tithe for the Levite, orphan, and widow, the Torah bids the donor to state “I have not transgressed any of Your commands, nor have I forgotten.” Now, it’s easy enough to understand the first part of the phrase: in giving tzedakah to the poor, we show our recognition that God owns all and that we are obligated to use God’s resources to care for the rest of God’s children. But what, then, does it mean to say “I have not forgotten.” We already know that the donor has remembered to tithe for the poor, so the Torah must be teaching some additional truth. What is it that the Torah is telling us?
Rashi, that great medieval Torah commentator asked the same question, and his answer is instructive. What is it we haven’t forgotten? “To bless You during the separation of tithes.” In other words, not only must we give, but we must thank God for the privilege of being able to do so. We have to pay our taxes gladly, with a spirit of gratitude.
Now, it’s bad enough that we have to support the poor at all, but can the Torah really expect us to enjoy doing it? Yes, and for two principal reasons: The Torah assumes that we are merely given permission to use what ultimately belongs to God. Given that God is the Creator and Possessor of all creation, everything we own we owe. How natural, then, to show our gratitude to God for allowing us to use this bounty by sharing it with others. Just as the graduate of a fine university demonstrates gratitude for his education by contributing money so that others can learn, the Jew is expected to want to provide for the welfare of others so that they, too, can come to experience God’s bounty directly.
The Torah assumes that we are all God’s children, hence equally deserving of care and support. Those who have more are obligated to share more because of that common humanity, because we are all children of God. If God doesn’t hoard the riches of the earth, then by what right can we?
Traditional Biblical law mandates transfer payments from the rich to the poor, legislating an obligatory tax that is an entitlement of those in need of care. Beyond even the requirements of the IRS, the Torah expects us to give, and to give in a cheerful spirit.
Remember that next April 15!
Shabbat Shalom.