Money is an incredible tool. It lends power, and broadens one’s possibilities.
As its basic level, the money in your pocket can buy you pleasure and prestige. It can give you peace of mind and security for the future. The dollar represents your ability to get what you want, which is why life, and even self-image, is so often anchored in the glitter of our personal gold.
Even more, so often the money we have is the fruit of difficult hours and thankless labor. We often work very hard, taking risks, beating off threats, putting in long hours to earn the money we possess. So, the money can represent more than potential pleasures, it represents the lifeblood we’ve invested in earning a living.
Our dollars can embody yesterday’s struggle and tomorrow’s reward.
With that in mind, we can appreciate the immense beauty of giving charity. When someone gives money to a greater need, they are parting with something very deep, with an embodiment of their toil and their pleasure. They are giving of themselves toward a Higher Objective, and - by doing so - they elevate their entire lives as represented by the money.
But why? Why would anyone willingly give their money away to someone else?
The answer is that charitable people recognize that they are part of a greater whole. When someone realizes “what I need is only half the picture, and the other half is what I’m needed FOR,” life’s equation changes. My assets don’t only represent my pursuits in life; they represent my responsibility to life.
That’s why we call charitable giving ‘Tzedakah’ in Hebrew. ‘Tzedaka’ means justice, because generosity reflects a fair-minded mindset of responsibility to the world.
In the Torah, G-d tells each person to give a ‘half-Shekel’ to the communal fund. The Shekel was silver coinage, each weighing 20 ‘gerahs’ (a Biblical weight measurement) of silver, so a ‘half-shekel’ was obviously 10 ‘gerahs’.
Why couldn’t the Torah just tell each person to give 10 ‘gerahs’? Why the emphasis on ‘halfness’?
The Torah is driving home our point.
When we recognize our own ‘half-ness,’ we’ll be ready to give ourselves whole-heartedly to our neighbors’ needs.
The half-Shekel – Tzedaka - makes the giver whole.
What a concept.