Tzedakah (Charity) in Israel

11th
JUL

2000 Years Later, the World is a Better Place

Posted by admin under Perspective, Social Justice, Torah, Tzedakah, What can "I" do, What can THEY do, World Poverty

As we enter the nine days, the days from Rosh Hodesh Av until Tisha B’Av (the first of the Hebrew month of Av to the 9th of the same month) we enter a period of deep mourning. The central theme of these days is mourning, better, longing for the return of the Holy Temple to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

There must of course be a deeper meaning to it all though. Surely, the lack of the most beautiful and holy of temples in all of history cannot be the ends we so dearly miss. There must be more. What is it that is really missing?

Well, to find the answer we must go back to what G-D saw as justification for the destruction of the temple and the subsequent exile of the Jewish people from their home-land. What was it that deserved such sever measures?

As our rabbis teach us. The Jewish people at the time just before the destruction and exile of the second temple were all “righteous” people. All were constantly busy with Torah Study, with the fulfilment of the Mitzvot, and more. What then was missing? What was wrong?

UNFORTUNATELY, what was deeply wrong was the lack of the social bond, the social responsibility to care for one another. To look after the poor an d the homeless, the downtrodden. The “Hessed”, the “Tzedakah” were what was missing.

Our rabbis teach us that it is just those things that will bring about the return of those better times.

TODAY, thank G-D the world is a much better place than it used to be. Yes, there is still much work to do but no one can deny that the caring, the tzedakah that happens every moment of the day is surely a sighn that we are on the right track.