The Gift of Life
Helping the needy is only a complete Mitzvah when you also remove the stigma of poverty from the recipient. BECHUKOSAI BECHUKOSAI
The Highest Form of Tzedakah
The Mitzvah of tzedakah is mentioned several times in the Torah, each time in a different context. From these variations we can gain some insight into the Torah’s approach to this central Mitzvah; the Mitzvah that our Sages link to Redemption among its many other qualities:
Tzedakah is great that it hastens the Redemption. (Talmud, Bava Batra 10a)
In this week’s parsha of Behar we read the following description about supporting those who are poor:
If your fellow among you becomes needy and his hand is faltering, you should support him, a convert or a resident, and he shall live with you.
BECHUKOSAI
According to Rashi, this particular command involves assisting the poor individual before he becomes impoverished. Do not let him fall. If you do it will be much more difficult to pick him up.
According to Rambam (Hilchos Tzedakah) this commandment refers to assisting by tendering a loan or finding a job for someone, etc., so that the person can stand on his own two feet and does not have to resort to tzedakah. This approach, Rambam maintains, represents the highest of the eight levels of tzedakah.
No Condescension
Upon deeper reflection on this verse we can discern yet another nuance of tzedakah which elevates this Mitzvah to yet a higher level. When we examine this verse the question can be raised: why does the Torah have to add the words “and he shall live with you?” Would it not have sufficed to have stated, “you shall support him?” Furthermore, what precisely does it mean when it says that “he shall live with you?”
BECHUKOSAI
When a person gives tzedakah to the poor and needy—especially if the person is poor in the spiritual sense of the word, as the Talmud (Nedarim 41a) states, “There is no poverty except in knowledge”—there is a tendency to put ourselves on a pedestal and look condescendingly on the impoverished individual whom we are helping.
The Torah therefore tells us, If your fellow among you becomes needy and his hand is faltering, you should support him, a convert or a resident, and he shall live with you.
This can be understood to mean: if you come to the conclusion that your fellow is needy and is on a very low level—“he is faltering”— you might want to help him in a manner that suggests your superior strength. You might look at this individual as one who is faltering and lowly and who therefore needs your philanthropy.
Indeed, the Hebrew words v’hechzakta bo “and you shall support him” can also be rendered as “and you shall overpower him.” You might help him in a fashion that BECHUKOSAI expresses your superior moral and spiritual strength in relation to this needy and lowly person. Indeed, your very reason for assisting this person may, in reality, be motivated by the desire to assert your superiority.
Lest one harbor this condescending attitude towards the poor in the process of helping them, the Torah concludes, “He shall live with you.” He shall be viewed as your equal.
Real Life
We can now also appreciate why the Torah states “He shall live with you.” Only when you view and treat the impoverished and faltering person as an equal, then, and only then, can he or she truly be said to live. A poor person is one of four types of downtrodden individuals about whom the Talmud (Nedarim 64b) states that he is compared to the dead. Helping another in a manner that highlights the poor person’s lowliness and degradation merely reinforces his or her inferiority complex as one who is lacking the very gift of true life. Nothing qualitatively has changed.
BECHUKOSAI
Before they were assisted, the poor were considered to be devoid of real life, and even now, after they have been assisted, their “lifeless” status has not been fundamentally altered.
The Torah therefore says that when you assist someone in ways that give that person his or her dignity that they are, at least, your equal, then you are actually giving them the ultimate gift—the gift of life!
Moshiach the Poor Man Riding on a Donkey
Moshiach has been compared to a poor person. In the Biblical book of Zecharya (9:9) Moshiach is described as a “poor man riding on a donkey.” This imagery has been understood in many ways. In light of the foregoing understanding as to the proper attitude we must exhibit in our efforts to help the poor, one may suggest the following:
As much as we depend on Moshiach to liberate us from exile—for that is the mission for which he is chosen—Moshiach depends upon us. Moshiach is described as a king who does not assume that title until the people BECHUKOSAI accept him as their monarch. In the words of our Sages, “There is no king without a nation.” This explains the references in Biblical literature to a king’s subjects saying: “Yechi Hamelech-Long live the King” (literally: “may the king live”).
And while this is true of every monarch it is especially true of Moshiach whose relationship with the people is even greater and more intrinsic than the relationship of other monarchs with their constituents. This, the Rebbe (Sefer Hasichos 5748) explains, is based on the teaching of the Ba’al Shem Tov that every Jew possesses a spark of Moshiach. Moshiach needs our spark to be ignited so that his flame can shine brightly.
Moshiach, in the time of exile before he is fully revealed, is thus considered to be in an impoverished and needy state because he depends on our “assistance.” Moshiach needs our input.
In the book of Psalms (Psalm 21:5) King David states:
He asked of You life, You gave it to him—long life forever and ever.
BECHUKOSAI
According to the Talmud (Sukkah 52a), King David is describing Moshiach’s plea to G-d for life. Why would Moshiach have to ask for life? In light of the above it can be understood that Moshiach as our ultimate leader needs our input, our assistance, otherwise he remains in his impoverished state—“the poor man riding on a donkey”—which is likened to the absence of life.
How We Give Life to Moshiach
When we show our impatience and disgust with the stifling and painful conditions of exile by crying out to G-d, “Ad Masai-How much longer,” we are, in effect, telling Moshiach that we are ready to leave exile and enter into a new age of Redemption. This enlivens and energizes Moshiach.
When we declare to Moshiach, as in Biblical tradition, “Yechi Hamelech-may the king live,” it is our way of saying that the spark of Moshiach within us has been ignited and nurtured. Now, Moshiach, we want your role as the redeemer to be actualized.
BECHUKOSAI
When we start to live our lives in a more Torah and Geulah/Redemption oriented way, with more purity and idealism, it is tantamount to declaring to Moshiach that it is time for him to “come alive” and fully assume the mantle of leadership. We are ready for him to reveal his potential as our redeemer. At that point, the internal Moshiach spark and the external Moshiach are in sync and both are no longer poor and needy. At that point it can be said, “and he shall live with you.”
BECHUKOSAI
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behar-Bechukosai by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
