One winter day when I was six or seven, my brother and I went out for a walk with our Great-Uncle Sydney near his apartment on the Lower East Side. As we turned a corner we came across a homeless man lying in a doorway. Sydney let go of our hands, took a step forward, reached into his wallet and handed the man several bills. He spoke quietly to the man for a moment, then took our hands and resumed our walk. He didn’t say a word. Intensely curious about what I had seen, I asked my uncle what had just happened. He told me he’d told the man that his shoelace was untied. I was deeply disturbed; I had seen my uncle give the man money, and couldn’t imagine why he would not be truthful with me -his beloved nephew – about what he’d done. This incident bothered me for years. Much later, I learned about the Rambam’s levels of tzedakah, and the profound importance of preserving the dignity of the one receiving help. I realized then that my uncle, an observant Jew, faced with lying to his nephew or protecting the dignity of a homeless stranger, had made the right choice. And even though he couldn’t explain it to me then, he showed me through his actions how to be a Jew in the world.
Daniel Sokatch is the Executive Director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance www.pjalliance.org
