A Rising Tide Lifts All Souls: The Spirituality of Economic Justice Activism
By Alex Sugerman-Brozen
Full article at Social Action, on-line Jewish magazine

Sugerman-Brozen discusses how following the words of the Torah in regard to activism can build greater community for the Jewish people and provoke a higher experience of Jewish spirituality. He connects these themes to the worldwide Jubilee movement and emphasizes the importance of working together toward justice for all. He also mentions Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the “self-actualization” level, in regard to being able to define one’s mission and cause, to further help our global brothers and sisters.

[Leviticus 25] has for obvious reasons been extremely important to Jewish and other faith-based economic justice activists.

Judaism is a communal culture and a communal religion. We practice our spirituality and our ritual lives in community, not in monastic solitude.

Similarly, the strength and power of our prayer is deepened by offering them together, in a group. We are responsible for each other's spirituality. Each of us individually depends on the group to reach a certain spiritual state and level. And each of us is responsible for helping others reach those higher levels as well.

Judaism creates… a communal moral accountability.

Reaching any kind of true spiritual fulfillment requires working for changes that will enable others to meet their basic survival needs. Only then can they too begin to address their own safety needs, their needs for love and affection, and so on. As long as they are prevented from meeting those higher needs, so am I. It is expressed well by the ubiquitous bumper sticker, "No one is free while others are oppressed," and by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere."

Today, a huge portion of humanity is suffering from economic oppression and injustice of one kind or another. Economic justice movements such as those to cancel Third World debt, to end sweatshops and child labor, to protect human rights, to narrow the huge gap of wealth inequality, and countless others all seek to help others to meet their basic needs.

By working to repair the world, we make our own connection to the Divine possible.

Mitzvah of Tzedakah
Easy to Grasp Textual Context for Members of Congregations
The Mitzvah of Giving to the Needy
Full article at Gates to Jewish Heritage site

Explanations of textual references that point to the mitzvahs involved in an active awareness of, and response, to those in need in our communities are found in this article. The article also takes the reader, step by step, through the process of giving tzedakah.

As Jews, we do not give out of the goodness of our hearts; we give because it is a mitzvah.

Failure to provide for the poor is tantamount to stealing from them, since the money originally had been given to them by G-d.

Even the poor person receiving tzedakah is required to give tzedakah to a person even poorer. Giving a twentieth of one's earnings was considered stingy.

There are numerous stories in the Talmud about Jews being generous to the poor and receiving divine rewards for their goodness. It is a recurring theme in our texts.

Traditionally, the protector of the poor was Elijah the prophet and, in Jewish literature he returns to test the goodness of Jews to see if they give tzedakah generously. Jews felt a financial responsibility to extended family members and tried to ensure that even distant relatives were taken care of.

Parashat Shoftim
Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue
Justice, expressed in Parashat Shoftim, is one of the eternal religious obligations of Judaism.
By Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Bedside Torah: Wisdom, Dreams, & Visions (McGraw Hill). For a free subscription to his weekly email Torah commentary, please send an email request to bartson@uj.edu.

Full article at My Jewish Learning site.

Rabbi Artson provides a provoking look at this parashat and its commandments. His commentary contains a brief comparison of different religions and their responses to justice issues with a great emphasis on the responsibilities of the Jewish people. Different Midrashim on this portion are also analyzed.

…the Hebrew Bible possesses in unique measure: a passion for justice for the poor, the weak, and the despised.

One cannot claim to love G-d and not be passionate about justice. That is the primary Jewish contribution to the human spirit.

We betray the broad heritage of Torah when we fail to recognize justice and righteousness as primary religious categories of Judaism.

…the midrash affirms the centrality of justice as a Jewish calling… How we treat the weakest in our midst (the "widow" and "orphan," to use the Torah's language) is still the irreplaceable core of our identity.


Issues of Conscience: There Shall Be No Poor …
By Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1965

Excerpts from the Chapter entitled: Judaism in Pursuit of Economic Justice
(The full chapter can be obtained upon request from Jubilee USANetwork)

This chapter is a phenomenal analysis of the effects of poverty on poor people and on the supportive global relationships we are creating and should be attempting to maintain daily. Hirsch also discusses the important differences between “charity” and “justice” and the fact that justice work is intimately related to recognizing and supporting the divinity within each human being.

[The] two emphases – all wealth comes from G-d; human life is sacred – became the foundation stones for Jewish treatment of the less privileged members of society

…Wealth, properly used, is a means of preserving and sanctifying life. Improperly used, it is a profanation of G-d and the being created in His image.

Unlike some religions, Judaism does not encourage the ascetic life. Poverty is not the way to piety. Scarcity does not lead to sanctity. The search for holiness is not made easier by insufficiency of basic necessities. Without the necessary material goods of life, man cannot attain the personal growth and satisfaction essential to human fulfillment. “All the days of the poor are evil.” (Proverbs 10:15)

Tzedakah is not an act of condescension from one person to another who is in a lower social and economic status. Tzedakah is the fulfillment of an obligation to a fellow-being with equal status before G-d. It is an act of justice to which the recipient is entitled by right, by virtue of being human.

Throughout the Bible, the poor man is not called “poor” but “thy brother,” thus establishing a relationship of equality between poor and rich. The recipient of charity is a “brother” to the donor. The poor man’s needs are spiritual as well as material. Because the poor man lacks material blessings, he is likely to feel inferior. Therefore, treat him like a brother. Spare his feelings. Zealously guard his dignity. Respect from others is poverty’s most helpful counterbalance. Self-respect is poverty’s most effective antidote.

In the Talmudic Period … the existence of the poor was an indication of social inequity which had to be rectified by society itself.


The World in Balance
By Howard Witkin
Full article at Aish site.

Witkin’s article reflects on the balance found in focusing on Teshuva (Return), Tefillah (Prayer) and Tzedakah (Righteousness). These elements allow us to “act, react, and interact” for the betterment of ourselves and for others. He also discusses the role of the three Jewish patriarchs in setting the stage for perpetuating the pillars upon which the world supposedly stands.

Shimon HaTzaddik was from the
remnants of the Great Assembly.
He used to say:
On three things the world stands.
On Torah,
On service [of G-d],
And on acts of human kindness

Human beings interact with the world on three levels: thought, speech and action. Each of these three is the key to the three basic relationships: You act on yourself through thought or will. You interact with G-d through speech. And you relate to others through actions.

We are required to look at other human beings, try to understand what they are lacking, and endeavor to help them. One of the worst mistakes is to turn a blind eye and become insensitive to the suffering of others… At its highest level, tzedakah requires us to "understand" another human being: Who is he? What does he lack? How can I help him fulfill his role in life? Then I need to act.

The first pillar of creation is knowing your identity and your mission … Avodah, the second pillar, is service of G-d. Chesed, the third pillar, is a commitment to performing acts of human kindness. Life is not a zero sum game. The success of others is your boon not your bane. G-d created us in order to give us good. The world was designed such that the greatest good is to give to others and to be other-centered. A person totally focused on himself and oblivious to the needs of others has, almost by definition, failed in the first two pillars. The third pillar of creation is to know that you are not in it alone. You are your brother's keeper.



Words Matter: Tikkun Olam
By Arthur Green
Full article at Social Action, on-line Jewish magazine.

Tikkun olam, which means "mending the world," is an ancient Hebrew phrase that has taken on new life in the past few decades. Its verbal form is found in the aleinu prayer, which concludes every service in the traditional synagogue. There le-takken olam means "to establish the world in the kingdom of the Almighty (shaddai)," or to bring about G-d's rule on earth. In contemporary usage it refers to the betterment of the world, including the relief of human suffering, the achievement of peace and mutual respect among peoples, and the protection of the planet itself from destruction.

While associating these ideals with tikkun olam may be a recent innovation, the values themselves are deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. Spreading our most basic moral message--that every person is the divine image (tselem elohim)--requires that Jews be concerned with the welfare, including the feeding, housing, and health, of all. The Torah's call that we "pursue justice, only justice" (Deuteronomy 16:20) demands that we work toward closing the terrible gaps, especially in learning and opportunity, that exist within our society and undermine our moral right to the relative wealth and comfort most of us enjoy. The very placing of humans on earth "to work and guard" (Genesis 2:15) G-d's garden, as well as the halakhah forbidding wanton destruction of resources, tells us that protecting the natural order is also a part of that justice.

The rediscovery of ancient spiritual forms in recent decades has paralleled an age of activism for political and social change. In some cases these have been quite separate from, or even opposed to, one another. Many of those attracted to seeking spirituality have given up on the possibility of any serious improvement in the human condition altogether. In the case of Judaism, such a bifurcation of spiritual and sociopolitical concerns is hardly possible. Anyone who tries to undertake it ultimately has to deal with the prophets of ancient Israel, still the strongest and most uncompromising advocates for social justice our world has known. If you try to create a closed world of lovely Jewish piety and build it on foundations of injustice and the degradation of others, Isaiah and Amos will not let you sleep.