Strengthen Him

“If your brother becomes poor… you shall strengthen him.” “You shall strengthen him…” Opening There is a word the world is quietly stealing from us. It does not take it by force. It swaps it out slowly, one word for another, until we lose our way. That word is: charity. Ask a young married man, “What is charity?” He feels he knows. It means giving. It means feeling for others. It means having a good heart. And truly, that is not false. But it is not the whole story. Where the last piece is missing, a foreign and dangerous idea slips in. It is called “social justice”: take from this person, give to that person, and call it “compassion.” The Torah calls it by a completely different name. Not Just Kindness, but Justice The first thing to know is simple, but it is basic. The Hebrew word the Torah uses for charity is not a translation of the English word “charity.” It does not come only from the idea of kindness and pity. It comes from the Hebrew word for justice: what is right, what is honest, the order Hashem set in the world. The Torah speaks of doing “charity and justice.” It joins the two together, because deep down they are one. Charity is not an act of kindness you do only if you feel like it. It is a commandment, and the very word means “a command.” It is a duty Hashem Himself gave us. So when a person gives charity, he is not “doing someone a favor.” He is putting the world back in its proper order. The money in his hand has a purpose that Hashem gave it. Giving is not giving something up. It is returning the money to where it belongs. This is the difference between “taking from one person and giving to another” and “giving from what Hashem gave you, so that you pass it on.” The first is robbery in disguise. The second is a mission. Maimonides: Above Them All Maimonides, the great medieval Jewish sage, lists eight levels of charity. Anyone who has studied them knows them. But we need to stop and feel it: what stands at the top of the ladder? It is not giving in secret. It is not giving before you are asked. It is setting the person on his own feet: a gift, a loan, a partnership, or finding him work. Why? However beautiful and noble the levels below it may be, they still stay inside a picture of “one who gives and one who receives.” There is someone who has, and someone who does not. The gap stays. The highest level breaks that whole picture. It does not fill what is missing. It removes the lack itself. It does not give a man a fish. It gives him back the ability to fish for himself. “Strengthen Him”: What Does It Mean? The Torah says: “If your brother becomes poor, and his hand falters beside you, you shall strengthen him.” Look closely at the wording. “Strengthen him.” It does not say “give to him” or “pity him.” It says “strengthen him,” from the word for strength. Strengthen his own hand. “His hand falters” means his hand has grown weak and his strength has run out. But the strength itself is still there. The person in need is not “lacking” at his core. He is in a temporary fall, and a fall can be lifted. “Strengthen him” means: reach out your hand and take hold of him. Take hold of *him*, of his own inner strength. Do not turn him into someone who will always need help. Set him on his feet. In the language of Hasidic teaching, we can say it like this. Inside every Jew there is a divine spark. As the Torah says: “For Hashem’s portion is His people.” A handout on its own can, without our meaning it, speak to what is “missing” in a person. A partnership, a job or a loan speaks to the strength inside him, to the spark that is still burning. This is a deeper love for every Jew: not pitying what is missing, but believing in what is there.