Erich Fromm and the Tzedakah
The psychologist Erich Fromm was an atheist who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family, and it is traditional Judaism which has informed his secular humanistic values throughout life. One such insight involves the psychology of poverty, that what makes being poor so ruinous isn’t only not being able to afford the luxuries of life or even the basic necessities, bad as that is; being poor is particularly terrible because one cannot even help others.
Being poor almost means that one can, by definition, only take, not give. Yet giving is a great joy in itself; in giving we share of ourselves, of our own happiness, of our own power. One who is not able to give – a poor person, for instance – is deprived of a very basic human faculty or power, akin to not being able to draw or express oneself powerfully and creatively. Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.
And so it is that Judaism, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, or Ultra-Orthodox, emphasizes a religious responsibility towards charity. Even secular Jews, people not strictly observant but who are otherwise immersed in the rich intellectual culture of the greater Jewish tradition, are likely to be concerned with social justice to some extent. Hence it is no accident that the Hebrew word for this form of religiously motivated charitable giving, “tzedakah,” literally translates as “fairness” or “justice” – “righteousness.” Part of what the rabbis believe God to conceive of as being righteous is to be fair, to be just – to one’s fellow man.
And because an act of tzedakah is a moral duty, and not simply philanthropy of the sort in which one indulges as one is moved (moreover, the rabbis teach that even the money for tzedakah is not to be regarded as one’s own – and so should be very carefully disbursed, wisely distributed with recipients mindfully researched) – even the poor are enjoined to participate.
And here is the most amazing thing of all: even the poor can give – even they are called to give, to be engaged, just as even the most prominent members of the community do. One need not be a Robert Toussie to give; one merely has to give as one is able to give. An act of tzedakah therefore restores to the poor person an important aspect of his or her humanity – the capability to share.