Small tidbits and Sparks of wisdom

דברי הטור
“מצות עשה ליתן צדקה כפי השגת ידו ומאד מאד צריך אדם ליזהר בה יותר מכל מצות עשה… וכל המעלים עיניו ממנה נקרא בליעל… וכל הזהיר בה מעידה עליו כי הוא זרע ברך ה׳… ואין כסא ישראל מתכונן ודת האמת עומדת אלא בצדקה… ואין ישראל נגאלין אלא בצדקה… ולעולם אין אדם מעני מן הצדקה ולא דבר רע ולא היזק מתגולל על ידה… וכל המרחם על העניים הקב״ה מרחם עליו.”
פסוקי התורה
“וכי ימוך אחיך ומטה ידו עמך והחזקת בו גר ותושב וחי עמך.” (ויקרא כה:לה)
“לא תאמץ את לבבך ולא תקפוץ את ידך מאחיך האביון.” (דברים טו:ז)
The Tur opens Hilchos Tzedakah in a way that at first seems difficult to understand. The Torah itself first discusses strengthening a person before he falls. The pesukim speak about loans, partnerships, employment, and supporting someone while he is still standing financially. Only afterward does the Torah discuss a person who already became poor.
Yet the Tur opens differently:
“מצות עשה ליתן צדקה כפי השגת ידו” “There is a positive commandment to give charity according to one’s ability.”
The structure of the Tur appears to reveal something much deeper. The Tur is not organizing the laws primarily from the perspective of the receiver. He is organizing them from the perspective of the giver.
The first question is not: “What kind of poor person is standing before you?”
The first question is: “What kind of person are you?”
Therefore, the Tur immediately speaks about the obligation to give, the severity of withholding charity, the danger of cruelty, and the greatness of tzedakah. He explains that one must be exceedingly careful with this mitzvah more than almost any other positive commandment. He teaches that mercy and generosity define the descendants of Avraham Avinu and the Jewish people themselves.
The Tur is building the soul of the giver before discussing the categories of recipients.
The opening expectation is enormous. The giver should develop such openness of heart that, if possible, he would fulfill the needs of every poor person completely. The goal is not merely technical compliance, percentages, or minimum obligations. The goal is to create a person whose heart becomes sensitive to the suffering of another Jew.
If every giver truly fulfilled the opening words of the Tur, many later laws would almost become unnecessary. Entire categories of poverty would be prevented before they ever developed. Families would not collapse. Debts would not spiral. People would not reach humiliation and desperation.
That is why the Torah itself emphasized: “והחזקת בו” “You shall strengthen him.”
The highest level of tzedakah is prevention. Helping someone before collapse preserves dignity, emotional stability, marriage, family structure, and independence. A loan, employment opportunity, partnership, or support before disaster is greater than rescue after destruction.
But the Tur goes even one step earlier than that.
Before discussing how to help, he defines what type of human being the giver must become.
The giver must understand that wealth is not absolute ownership. Money is entrusted to him by Hashem. The poor person is not an interruption in his life. The poor person is part of his responsibility in this world.
Then comes the second level: the obligation of the community.
The same expectation placed upon the individual is placed upon the community itself. A Jewish community is not merely a collection of people living near each other. It is a structure of mutual responsibility. The community must combine its efforts and build systems that prevent collapse: charity funds, loans, employment assistance, family support, emergency aid, and care for widows, orphans, the sick, and the struggling.
But even the communal system is built upon the first foundation: that the individual himself becomes a giver.
Every person, according to his understanding, knowledge, financial ability, and connection to Hashem, knows truthfully what he is capable of doing. Sometimes a person cannot personally give large sums, but he can organize others, raise awareness, collect funds, connect people, and take responsibility for someone in need. In a certain sense, this can be even greater than giving personally, because he is not only helping himself — he is causing many others to perform acts of tzedakah that otherwise would never have happened.
This is why the entire concept of tzedakah is really a process of human growth.
The Torah and the Tur are not merely discussing economics or social welfare. They are discussing the construction of the human being: to build generosity, sensitivity, responsibility, mercy, and genuine love for fellow Jews.
This, however, becomes an extremely difficult test, because it requires genuine emunah and bitachon.
A person naturally fears the future. He says: “I have what I need today, but if I give more away, what will happen tomorrow? Maybe I myself will not have enough.”
But according to the deeper understanding of the Tur, that fear cannot become the final calculation, because tomorrow belongs to Hashem just as much as today.
Tomorrow is a new creation. Hashem may provide more. And even if He does not provide more, that itself may be part of the person’s test. But that does not erase the greatness of what was done yesterday when he used his extra money to save another human being, support a family, remove shame, or preserve someone’s dignity and life.
Nothing given for the sake of another Jew goes unnoticed before Hashem.
That is why the Tur later brings assurances regarding tzedakah: that a person does not become poor from giving, that evil does not come through charity, and that one who has mercy on others receives mercy from Heaven.
But these are not magical guarantees of wealth. They require real emunah. The true test is whether a person genuinely believes that all sustenance comes from Hashem. If a person believes that his wealth exists solely because of his own intelligence and power, then giving feels like self-destruction. But if he understands that parnassah is renewed by Hashem every single day, then tzedakah becomes an act of trust, attachment to the Creator, and recognition that all blessing comes from Him.
That is why the Tur begins with the giver and not the receiver.
All the later laws — percentages, priorities, limits, communal structures, and technical details — are the practical guidelines for managing a world where human beings have not yet reached that highest level.
But the foundation comes first: to build the heart of the giver, the soul of the community, and a life built on mercy, responsibility, emunah, and trust in Hashem.