Rabbi Janet Burden

Re’eh – Social Justice and Immigration August 2015

One of the things I have always loved about the Jewish tradition is its strong commitment to building a just society. Although the texts we quote most often on this subject come from the prophetic books of the Bible, books like Amos and Isaiah, I think it is important to remember that the moral imperative to care for the poor and the vulnerable comes directly from our foundational narrative, the story of the Exodus. In a very real sense, to be Jewish is to understand what it is like to have been exploited and oppressed. Crucially, however, our experience doesn’t end there – it doesn’t stay with victimhood. We also know the experience of being freed by the hand of one stronger than ourselves. The dual nature of our experience calls on us again and again to ensure that others who are vulnerable are aided and protected. Our reading today from the book of Deuteronomy outlines some of the practical steps we can take towards this end. But before we look at those, I’d like us to spend just a few moments considering the “big picture” of social justice.

One of the primary means through which we pursue the goal of a just society is tzedakah, usually rendered as “charity.” Actually, it is a good example of a Jewish concept that doesn’t translate well into English. “Charity,” as its Latin source caritas implies, is bound up with the concept of compassion. Simply put, one gives charity to the poor out of a feeling of sympathy for their plight. Being based on an emotional response, charity is prone to fail whenever people suffer from what has been termed “compassion fatigue.” One appeal too many, and charity can dry up…. Tzedakah, on the other hand, is a rather heartier concept. It comes from a family of Hebrew words that have to do with righteousness and justice. Jews give tzedakah because helping someone less fortunate is the right thing to do. Giving is the means, not the end, of tzedakah. The goal is to help others, or, as Maimonides puts it, to “strengthen their hand.” What we should always be seeking to do is what development agencies call today “breaking the poverty cycle.”

Nothing gives a clearer example of breaking the poverty cycle than the verses concerning the remission of debts that we read today. This decree, fashioned as Divine Commandment, set ancient Israelite culture on a rather different plane than the surrounding cultures. This is not, however, because the idea of remission itself was unique. Other societies DID call for similar releases from debt or servitude, usually on the accession of a new ruler. The Mesopotamian and the Greek historical records show this clearly. Such an act on the part of a new king fostered loyalty among grateful subjects, thus promoting political stability. It was a standard near-Eastern practice. What, then, marks the Jewish law out as such a radical departure?

Simply this: the Jewish law was constructed in such a way that it could be of no use in political power games. The remission of debts, as it is framed in the Torah, was a self-correcting mechanism whereby economic disparities could be balanced. It happened on a predictable, reliable basis, and was not dependent on any event or on the whims of any individual. At periodic intervals, the richest in the society suffered some loss, while the poorest were lifted from the desperation of absolute poverty. In short, the law was designed to work for the long-term benefit of all the people by fostering a just society.

The writer of our text knows, however, that no matter how carefully a law is framed, the long-term good of the people is sometimes vulnerable to the short-term greed of the individual. He even anticipates the all-too-human reaction to the idea of waiving debts, warning us against shirking our responsibility. He reminds us that although it is God’s intention that there should be no poor person among us, “there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand….” The text demonstrates quite clearly that our feelings about helping the poor are irrelevant. We open our hands because it is our obligation to do so. They do not have to earn our help; it is theirs by right.

That is why I get so angry when I hear people challenging the right of both our indigenous poor and asylum-seekers to make some claim on our relatively wealthy society. Hatred is stirred up against them and we close our hearts and our hands to them.

Is there any one of us here that would dare to deny having this reaction, at least on some occasions? It is the very thing that Torah has warned us against. These unfortunate people are all too often seen through the lenses of our Victorian forebears as the “undeserving poor” – in other words, as the kind of poor people who do not merit our help. We should not forget that those very Victorians probably judged our forebears, many of whom arrived on these shores as refugees, in the same way. Such an attitude sits uncomfortably with the whole Jewish notion of social responsibility. We are not expected to sit in judgement on our brothers and sisters who find themselves in difficult circumstances; we are simply commanded to help them. And why? If you look a little further on in the Torah, it says, “Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Eternal One your God redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.” We are called upon to act like God and to respond to suffering.

It is said in the midrash that Korach, who was very wealthy, once challenged Moses:

“Moses, our teacher, it is written in our Torah, ‘Do not take from the poor for they are poor.’ Who can take from the poor, since they have nothing?”

Moses answered him, “What you give to the poor belongs to them; what you do not give them, is what you take from them.”

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