Legend has it that the taciturn Calvin Coolidge once returned
from a church service. "What did the minister speak about?" his
wife asked him. "Sin," Coolidge responded. "And what did he
say?" "He was against it." One might suppose that anyone writing
about tzedaka would run into the same sort of difficulty as
Coolidge's minister. After all, once one says that giving
tzedaka is a good thing, what more remains to be said? Jewish
sources reveal that there is a great deal more. The word tzedaka
derives from the Hebrew word tzedek, "justice." Performing deeds
of justice is perhaps the most important obligation Judaism
imposes on the Jew. "Tzedek, tzedek you shall pursue," the Torah
instructs (Deuteronomy 16:20). Hundreds of years later, the
Talmud taught: "Tzedaka is equal to all the other commandments
combined" (Bava Bathra 9b). From Judaism's perspective,
therefore, one who gives tzedaka is acting justly; One who
doesn't, unjustly. And Jewish law views this lack of justice as
not only meanspirited but also illeg