This week’s parshah contains the famous instruction (Deut. 16:20), tzedek tzedek tirdof - justice, justice you shall pursue. The rule of law, and courts to administer it, is a core element of the Jewish tradition – so much so that it is considered one of the indicators of righteousness for all the peoples of the world, not just the Jewish people.
Since it is a principle that there is no superfluous letter or word in the Torah, this repetition of the word tzedek, justice, has been the subject of much interpretation. There are several ways of reading this verse. One is that the two words serve as emphasis – you must really pursue justice. Or perhaps it is suggesting a level of avidness or eagerness – justice is something you must enthusiastically or assiduously pursue.
The commentator Simcha Bunem interprets it to mean that justice must be pursued by just means – the ends don’t justify the means in Jewish thought.
Or perhaps the repetition indicates that there are different kinds of justice to be pursued – the Eytz Hayim humash of the Conservative movement suggests two sorts of justice: formal justice (courts and fair procedures and the like) and distributive justice (making sure that everyone has the minimum of what is necessary to live). As I indicated in my message a couple of weeks ago, it is this latter kind of justice that forms the basis of the Jewish obligation of tzedakah – often interpreted as charity but really indicating a just (tzedek) distribution of resources.
This is also the basis for the Jewish interest in tikkun olam – repair of the world. Over the past 100 years Jews in American have been in the forefront of movements to change the world for the better in the areas of racial justice, economic justice, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement, environmentalism, peace, and on and on. This is because we don’t believe the world is irredeemable or irreparable, and we don’t wait around for salvation to arrive from some other corner – we see it as our responsibility to partner with God to make the world a better and more just place - right here, right now. I find that something to be proud of, and to me it means we have taken seriously Deuteronomy’s directive to pursue, pursue justice – and we still are pursuing it, to this day.
Periods and Spaces
3 hours ago
2 comments:
yasher koach. nice dvar Torah. a word to the wise - if you want distribution tzedakah to work, one needs to avoid distrubtion politics and distribution fogginess. that is, if it is not clear where one is giving his hard-earned tzedakah shekels, then it really isn't helping the distribution justice.
for example, giving tzedakah money to a place that does good work, but spends 32% on overhead and administration is not a very prudent way for distribution to work. giving to a place that operates on 10% is much better! (more shekels get into the hands of the those that need them).
check out www.mitzvahheroesfund.org (based on the ideas of danny siegel - www.dannysiegel.com )
a meaningful elul to you -
arnie draiman
www.draimanconsulting.com
I think it depends. An organization whose mission everyone understands and which distributes money, like Mazon, may not need much administration. But a lot of fundraising is relationship building, and having a staff capable of building those relationships might cost more on the overhead side but garner results in terms of raised funds and raised awareness. Also, in the JDC situation, a lot of distributions depend on having people on site in overseas locales to discern the needs and administer the funds. But I wouldn't give money to an organization that hires an outside firm to do its fundraising at the expense of getting the donated money where it needs to go.
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