Year-Beginning Giving — Shabbat 151b — #17

It has been taught [in a baraita]: R. Shimon b. Eleazar says: Do [tzedakah] while you can find someone [to receive it] and while you still have resources [to give] and while it is still in your power [to give]. And even Solomon, in his wisdom, said, So appreciate your vigor in the days of your youth, before the evil days come upon you—these [evil days are] the days of old age—and the years draw nigh when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1—these are the days of the messiah, when there is neither merit nor obligation.

INTRODUCTION
For the past few weeks, my email “in box” has been flooded with solicitations from a wide variety of charities, each hoping that the looming end of the secular year would inspire me and many others to claim another tax-deductible contribution. Have you had the same experience? Fundraisers know that one way to encourage those of us who are inclined to give to actually make a contribution is to create a sense of urgency by setting a deadline. One website, dedicated to “Compassionate Crowdfunding” advises: “When people receive requests of any kind, the natural reaction is to identify the deadline, and then wait until time is running out. With a fundraising deadline that conveys a sense of urgency, your [web]page will motivate more people to act quickly.” (Here’s another example.) The organizations who flooded my inbox from Thanksgiving to New Years were banking on December 31 being the deadline for those wishing to write off their contributions on their 2015 taxes. For the Talmud, the “deadline” is understood literally: death.

COMMENTARY
Talmud assumes we have righteous intentions coupled with human inclinations. Our righteous intentions play this continuous-loop tape in our heads: “Good people give tzedakah and I want to be a good person. It’s my obligation to give tzedakah and I should fulfill my obligation. I feel good about myself when I give tzedakah. I shouldn’t procrastinate in giving tzedakah because then I’m not as good as I want to be.” Most of us have a concurrent continuous-loop tape playing in our heads: “I might need this money. There are things I’d like to buy with this money. What if something happens so that I don’t have enough money?” 

What motivates people to donate to charities, volunteer at shelters and soup kitchens, and give money to homeless people on the street? Is it expectation of a reward or altruism?

R. Shimon b. Eleazar understands these conflicting messages swirling around in our minds. He also understands that every thought on both of those tapes begins with “I.” He offers us another tape to play in our heads that help us understand in a meaningful and existential way that tzedakah is not just about us. First, R. Shimon reminds us that giving tzedakah is primarily about the recipient’s needs. If we ignore one who is in need, that person will continue to suffer and another opportunity to alleviate suffering may not come our way for some time. Second, he reminds us that people’s fortunes wax and wane and the opportunity to alleviate someone’s suffering is guaranteed only now, in this moment. (R. Chiyya will remind his wife further down on this same daf of Talmud, “There is a wheel which revolves in this world.”) Third, R. Shimon reminds us that just as our financial resources might decline, so too our physical resources, in which case even if we have the money, we might not have the strength to dispense it to lesson someone’s suffering. Do it now, while you can!, R. Shimon advises, lest tomorrow you cannot for lack of finding someone in need, or the financial resources to help, or the strength to make real your good intentions.

A brain-imaging study headed by neuroscientist Jordan Grafman from the National Institutes of Health showed that the “pleasure centers” in the brain, i.e., the parts of the brain that are active when we experience pleasure (like dessert, money, and sex), are equally active when we observe someone giving money to charity as when we receive money ourselves! Giving to others even increases well-being above and beyond what we experience when we spend money on ourselves. (see Question #3 below)

Gemara support R. Shimon with a verse from Ecclesiastes, which tradition holds was composed by King Solomon. The verse opens the last chapter of the book, which is dedicated to reminding us to get our acts together religiously and morally because life is never as long as we think, and we waste too much time on superficial and frivolous pursuits. Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet; all is vanity (1:2 and 12:8)—and too late we realize we’re out of time. Gemara, unsurprisingly, identifies the “days of evil,” which the verse contrasts with the “days of our youth,” as old age. But perhaps unexpectedly, Gemara identifies the days in which we “have no pleasure” not as these same “days of evil”/old age, but rather as the days of the Messiah, when we will be unable to attain merit for good deeds because we will no longer be obligated to give tzedakah because no one will be in need. The deadline for goodness is now, while there is human suffering in the world. The Gemara is reminding us that giving tzedakah will bring us enormous joy, the joy of being young and vigorous.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1. What inspires you to give tzedakah or engage in volunteer work?
2. What can you do to encourage yourself to give more and do more? (For example, if you keep a pile of $1 or $5 bills in easy reach while you drive, would it be easier to give them to people asking for handouts? Try it.)
3. Emma Seppala wrote an article that summarizes work done in the field of Positive Psychology concerning compassion and human behavior. Have you experienced the health and happiness benefits of compassion discovered by cognitive scientists in the field and described in her piece?