Out of Bounds
Tikkun Olam, making the world a righteous world is just the first step. Righteousness is not the ideal. The ideal is to bring a higher form of devotion that goes beyond just doing that which is right. It is going out of our limits. That is the difference between Tzedakah and Gemillus Chasadim
Don’t Weigh the Mitzvos!
Generally speaking, one cannot say that one Mitzvah is more important than another. All the commandments were given to us by one G-d and compliance with any of them means that we have fulfilled the will of G-d. Nevertheless, we do find Mitzvos that are singled out by our Sages for their importance.
Chassidic thought reconciles this apparent contradiction by referring to two dimensions of every Mitzvah. The first is the fulfillment of G- d’s will and the second is the function of the Mitzvah to change the person who performs it and the world around him. While every Mitzvah is the same from the perspective of it being G- d’s will, and every Mitzvah we perform creates an eternal bond with G-d, there are myriads of differences between Mitzvos insofar as they pertain to their effects on us and the world.
One of the Mitzvos concerning which our Sages have stated that “it is the equivalent of all other Mitzvos” is the Mitzvah of Tzedakah (usually translated as charity). However, even the Mitzvah of Tzedakah is exceeded in importance by a Mitzvah that appears in this week’s parsha, loaning money, known colloquially as Gemillus Chassdaim, (or by its acronym: g’mach) acts of loving kindness.
For the Poor and the Rich
Our Sages declare: “Acts of loving kindness are even greater than Tzedakah.” (Talmud, Sukkah) The Talmud then proceeds to give three reasons for this: The reason that applies specifically to the mitzvah of lending money is: “Tzedakah can only be performed for the poor, whereas acts of kindness (such as lending money) can be performed for the rich and the poor.”
At first glance this explanation itself is in need of explanation. Why should Tzedakah, which is given to the poor, take a back seat, so to speak, to the lending of money to the rich? Moreover, when one gives Tzedakah, one actually parts with his or her money forever. Isn’t that a greater sacrifice than lending money, where the lender receives the money in return and suffers no loss (except the interest that they could have made had they invested the money in business)?
Whose Money is it?
Perhaps one way of looking at it is to reflect on the perspective offered by Chassidic thought concerning Tzedakah.
In truth, we are told, the money that a person gives to a needy person really belongs to that person. G-d had originally intended for that money to go to him or her. However, in order to facilitate the act of Tzedakah, G-d temporarily entrusted the rich person with the money that He had intended for the poor. That individual does not have the right to choose whether to give; their choice is whether they will do the right thing or not.
To be sure there are other legitimate choices in the process of giving Tzedakah. The affluent person does have the prerogative to decide to whom the money shall be given, the amount and in what way, cheerfully or begrudgingly. This allows the rich person to exercise his choice to do that which is right. Moreover, it makes the giver a partner with G-d in the allocation of resources to the world. And, as a “fringe benefit”, by acting as G-d’s agents to provide for others, we come out of the experience more refined and filled with a profound sense of satisfaction and joy.
This explains why the translation of tzedakah is not generosity or goodness but righteousness. By giving tzedakah one is doing that which is just and right. And while we have the right to take credit for doing the right thing, since we had free choice to do otherwise, we must always remember that the money was always rightfully the possession of the recipient and the act of giving only appears to be that; in reality, tzedakah is the act of returning.
This does not mean that there is no kindness in the act of giving. On the contrary, the Talmud (codified by Maimonides) speaks of the different degrees of tzedakah that are commensurate with the degree of kindness that one exhibits and expresses while giving Tzedakah. However, one cannot forget that the main objective of Tzedakah is to help the needy and thereby rectify the imbalance that G-d allowed to exist and return the money, as it were, to its rightful owner.
Lending Your Own Money
Lending money to a rich person, by contrast, is not the same as tzedakah. One cannot say that the money lent was originally intended for the rich borrower because, in reality, the money is returned to the lender. In effect, when one lends money they are truly parting with the money that G-d gave the lender, albeit temporarily. By doing so, the lender transcends the boundaries of “what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours,” because even what is truly his, he gives away to another.
Tzedakah, on the other hand, is not really giving that which is yours to someone else, as was discusses above. Tzedakah simply rectifies the disparity that G-d allowed to exist in this world; it rights the wrongs of the world.
Gemillus Chassadim, acts of loving kindness, by contrast, allows us to go beyond the parameters of a just world, by taking that which was allocated for ourselves and giving it to another. Even after the wrongs were righted, by helping the poor and needy, we seek to transcend the bounds of propriety. The act of giving an interest free loan constitutes truly breaking out of our boundaries and limiting parameters.
The Optional Obligation
When the Torah introduces the Mitzvah of lending money it uses the term “im” which usually translates as “if.” Rashi, however, points out that here it means “when,” because lending money is not an option, it is a Mitzvah a commandment.
Why then does the Torah use the word im which can be translated “if?” It could have used another, more common, Hebrew word such as ka’asher, which means “when.”
Based on the earlier analysis, the Mitzvah of lending money, though it is an obligation, differs fundamentally from other obligations, which are primarily directed at correcting an undesirable situation. Lending money, by contrast, is intended to supersede the process of repairing what is broken. Hence, it was prefaced by the word im-if that implies that it is not a conventional obligation. On the one hand it ought not be an obligation because nothing is broken; on the other hand it is nevertheless an obligation, because the Torah wants us to transcend the necessary.
Ifs, Ands and Buts
An allegorical explanation may also be suggested based on the composition of the word im, which consists of the Hebrew letters of aleph and mem. These two letters are special because they are said to be the initials of the historical leaders of the Jewish people who were also their liberators: Aaron and Moses, (the liberators from Egyptian bondage) Esther (which begins with an Aleph in Hebrew) and Mordechai (the liberators of the Jewish people during the saga of Purim) and Eliyhau and Moshiach (who will usher in the future Redemption and the Messianic Age)
By prefacing the Mitzvah of lending money with the word Im that signifies the process of liberation, the Torah has thereby conveyed a message that the way to hasten the process of liberation, i.e., breaking out of the boundaries that constrain us, is by increasing our acts of goodness and kindness, especially when the kindness is not just to “repair the world,”’ but, moreover, to “upset the balance” in a positive vein, by allowing the good to break out of its boundaries. This we accomplish by specifically lending money to others.
Lending in the Future
On a more basic level, the connection between lending money and tzedakah and the Messianic Age is that in the Messianic Age there will be no need to assist the poor because the poor will no longer exist.
Although the Talmud (Shabbos 63a) describes the Messianic Age as one in which there will still be poverty, it is understood that in a more advanced stage of the Messianic Era poverty will disappear.
However, even then there might be situations where one may not have access to his or her resources and needs a loan. Lending one’s property is thus a Mitzvah that will not only exist in theory but may very well be a staple of our Jewish life even in the days of Moshiach.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Mishpatim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
