Giving Tzedakah
Allow me to introduce you to a timeless Jewish tradition. It's called “Giving Tzedakah,” and I think bringing it here to Words over Swords has the potential to be transformative.
WHAT IS TZEDAKAH?
Tzedakah (hear the pronunciation, as spoken by Northeastern American Jews) is the Hebrew word for ‘righteousness,’ but is often used colloquially to refer to charity and justice.
In Judaism, being charitable and helping others is seen as an act of generosity and justice. “Giving tzedakah” is considered a good deed and an obligation (mitzvah) Jewish people have to God to help bring fairness and justice to the world. You can learn more about the Jewish tradition of tzedakah at www.myjewishlearning.com.
Jewish people have been engaging in the mitzvah of tzedakah since at least the 16th century C.E. (Common Era) (Posner, n.d.). When I was a kid in Sunday School, my parents would give me a quarter to put in the tzedakah box in the classroom every week.
Passing the tzedakah box was still a regular ritual 25 years later when I was a youth advisor in a peer leadership program for Jewish high school students.
Now, I want to bring the mitzvah of charitable giving here to Words over Swords.1
SOUNDS COOL, JEFF. SO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?
Effective April 1, 2025 (no fooling!), I’m going to activate the paid subscription option for Words over Swords. After I’ve done that, here’s what will happen.
When people purchase a paid subscription to Words over Swords, I’m going to hold that money in a dedicated interest-bearing savings account.
Once I have accumulated at least $250, I will donate that money to a non-profit organization chosen by the Words over Swords community. I’ll explain more about why we’re using this method in a bit.
“GIVING TZEDAKAH” AKA SUBSCRIBING OR MAKING A ONE-TIME DONATION
If you’d like to give tzedakah, you’ll have a few ways to do so (i.e., subscription tiers):
Free Subscription
Giving tzedakah is entirely voluntary. All my creative content will remain available outside the paywall. If you want to give tzedakah without making a financial contribution, you can help build this community by selecting a free subscription, as well as liking, sharing, and commenting on my posts.
One-time Tzedakah Donation
Use the “Give Tzedakah” button to make a one-time contribution to the Featured Non-Profit Organization of the Quarter in an amount of your choice, using the “Buy me a Coffee” platform. Note: Buy me a Coffee takes a fee of 5% from your contribution.
Monthly Subscription
Sign up for a Monthly Subscription to contribute $5 monthly to the Featured Non-Profit Organization of the Quarter ($60/year). You can give half this amount in a once-annual contribution of $30 by selecting the Annual Subscription below. Note: Substack takes a fee of 10% of your contribution.
Annual Subscription
Sign up for an Annual Subscription to make a once-annual contribution of $30 to the Featured Non-Profit of the Quarter. Note: Substack takes a fee of 10% of your contribution.
Founding Member Level AKA “Community Advocate”
Become a Community Advocate! Sign up at the Founding Member Level to make a once-annual contribution of $30 - $100 to the Featured Non-Profit of the Quarter. Note: Substack takes a fee of 10% of your contribution.
A quick note: There are limits to the flexibility of the subscription amounts within the Substack architecture. Hence the fixed starting points for the monthly and annual subscriptions.
OK… WHAT IF I WANT TO STOP MAKING CONTRIBUTIONS?
You can cancel a paid subscription at any time to stop making contributions. When you cancel a paid subscription, you automatically revert to free subscriber status, so, you’ll continue to receive all my content.
YOU’VE GOT MY ATTENTION! SO, HOW (AND WHEN) WILL YOU DISTRIBUTE THE FUNDS?
You are full of good questions! I love having inquisitive readers. Here’s what I’m thinking.
I’m prepared for this to start small, so I’m going to accept contributions until I reach $250 (cross fingers) or the end of a set period, whichever happens last.
For now, that period will be three months (a quarter). So, the first quarter of this project will be the three-month period beginning April 1, 2025.
Each quarter, I will solicit recommendations from the Words over Swords community for the Featured Organization of the Quarter. Community members will vote on which organization is selected as the recipient of our contributions for that quarter. There will be a link on my Substack page where you can learn more about the Featured Organization (most be on the Substack website; it doesn’t seem to show on the app).
Once I’ve hit the set goal, I will withdraw the funds from the savings account and donate them to the agency of the quarter.
And the interest I mentioned before? (You didn’t forget the interest-bearing savings account, did you?)
We’ll just let the interest build over time until it reaches $50. Then I’ll take that $50 and add it to the current quarterly donation. After that, the interest will start accumulating again from $0.
YOU ARE… BLOWING. MY. MIND! (AM I?) BUT, WAIT… THERE’S A GOOD POSSIBILITY I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU! DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU WRITE PRETTY WORDS ON THE INTERNET?
Yes?
I jest. That’s what got the world to this point.
First, “Hello!” to the 50% of my readers who know me personally. You are my foundation. I see you. Thank you for joining me on this adventure. 🙏💛
And to those readers who don’t know me, “Hello! Nice to meet you, and, yes, I am legit,” (too legit to quit, even).
WOW, THAT WAS CRINGE-WORTHY.
Yes. After reading that line, my wife laughingly called me “a giant <word I won’t repeat here> dork.”
Anyway, here’s how I’m going to prove it to you. (You didn’t even have to ask).
To start, I’m going to put my money where my proverbial mouth is. Each quarter, I’m going to add $50 of my own money to our “tzedakah box” to get the contributions started.
Second, although I’m not a 501(c)3 organization (at least not yet. Let’s see how this project goes), we’re going to act like I’m one.
I will provide a Quarterly Financial Report—to include monthly subscription numbers, bank statements, and donation receipts—to my “Board of Directors” to ensure complete transparency and accountability.
The Quarterly Financial Report will be published no more than two months following the end of the reporting quarter. For example, financial statements for the quarter ending June 30, 2025, will be available no later than August 31, 2025.
If anyone on the Board has questions about the content of the financial reports, they can reach me via email.
WHO IS ON THIS BOARD OF DIRECTORS?
That’s up to you. I believe if you’re a financial contributor to this Community of Giving we’re building, you deserve to know how it’s doing.
If you wish to “join” the Board of Directors (i.e., receive this financial information), there will be a separate (free) newsletter option that only paid subscribers can access (I’ll add the “Buy Me a Coffee” contributors manually).
I will share the quarterly financial information with the subscribers on that list. The information will also be available behind the paywall for paid subscribers to view directly on Substack, at their discretion.
If you sign up at the Community Advocate level, you’ll automatically be added to the Board of Directors list.
WOW! YOU REALLY HAVE THOUGHT THIS THROUGH
Yeah, my mind has been working overtime, lately. Words over Swords is the passion project I never expected—but somehow knew I always needed.
I’m not playing around, but I am having more fun than I’ve had in ages. I am loving every moment of this journey—the successes and the failures.
So, let’s see how this part of the experiment goes. The worst that can happen is I fail.
So… are you with me?
ALMOST… WASN’T THERE SOMETHING ABOUT THE DISTRIBUTION METHOD?
Yeah, I did promise I’d get to that.
I originally proposed contributing to non-profit organizations in my own community of Southern New Jersey; however, I came to realize the unilateral direction of this giving (only towards my community) and the ethical implications (I could be giving to organizations with whom I may have a business relationship in my professional career).
The distribution method I have ultimately selected creates a more communal, reciprocal, egalitarian Community of Giving than my original proposition. Rather than giving exclusively to my community, at my discretion, we will be working collaboratively to build capacity in YOUR local communities through the power of our online community. It allows you to advocate for and impact the organizations YOU care about.
Harnessing the generosity and power of our online community feels like an important thing to do.
It feels just. It feels righteous.
It feels like tzedakah.
So…let’s build a Community of Giving. Are you with me?
References:
Dorff, E.N. (n.d.) What is tzedakah? [image]. ExploringJudaism.org. Retrieved March 23, 2025 from www.exploringjudaism.org/every-day/tzedakah/what-is-tzedakah/
Janowski, M. (n.d.). Why is charity considered the greatest mitzvah? Chabad.org. Retrieved March 23, 2025 from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/580598/jewish/Why-is-Charity-the-Greatest-Mitzvah.htm
My Jewish Learning. (n.d.). Mitzvah: A commandment. ExploringJudaism.org. Retrieved March 23, 2025 from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mitzvot-a-mitzvah-is-a-commandment/
My Jewish Learning. (n.d.) Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World. MyJewishLearning.com. Retrieved March 22, 2025 from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tikkun-olam-repairing-the-world/
My Jewish Learning. (n.d.). Tzedakah 101. MyJewishLearning.com. Retrieved March 22, 2025 from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tzedakah-101/
Posner, M. (n.d.). What is tzedakah? 15 facts about charity every Jew should know. Chabad.org. Retrieved March 23, 2025 from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4203668/jewish/What-Is-Tzedakah.htm
Hang on, Jeff, I thought you weren’t religious.
Yeah, I’m really not. I’ve tried cultivating a more spiritual side, but it never quite sticks. Maybe I’m trying again. And, while I’m not religious, I identify as Jewish, and I deeply cherish my Jewish upbringing, Jewish culture, and the teachings of the religion. In addition to tzedakah, I’m particularly drawn to the Judaic concept of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world,” which encompasses social action and the pursuit of social justice. I’ll probably write an essay on that at some point down the line.
For now, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the Jewish tradition:
"He who saves a single life saves the world entire." - Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a)