The Torah on kindness to others

Judaism does not treat helping others as an optional extra for the especially kind. It is commanded. The syllabus asks for the teaching of the Torah on kindness to others, so know some actual texts:

• "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) — regarded by many Jewish teachers as one of the great principles of the whole Torah.
• "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour" (Leviticus 19:16) — a striking command. Doing nothing is itself a wrong. If someone is in danger and you could act, silence is not neutral.
• Leaving the corners of the field (Leviticus 19:9–10) — farmers were commanded not to harvest right to the edges of the field and not to go back for what they dropped, but to leave it for the poor and the stranger. Notice how it works: the poor person gathers it themselves. They are not made to beg or to say thank you. Their dignity is protected by the design of the law.
• "Do not harden your heart... open your hand" (Deuteronomy 15:7–8) — the command to give to the needy, and specifically to give sufficient for their need.
• The Torah repeatedly singles out three groups for protection: the widow, the orphan and the stranger — those with no family and no power — reminding Israel that you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Doing nothing is not neutral

Tzedakah, pushkes and gemilut hasadim

Tzedakah is usually translated "charity" — and the translation is misleading, so make this point in the exam.

• Tzedakah is therefore a duty, not a kindness. The money was never fully yours — G-d is the creator and owner of everything, and a portion is owed to those in need. Even a poor person who receives tzedakah is expected to give some. Jews traditionally aim to give around a tenth of their income.
• Pushkes — the collection boxes (a Yiddish word). A pushke sits in the kitchen of many Jewish homes, and coins are dropped in before Shabbat candles are lit. Boxes are found in synagogues, schools and shops. The point is that giving becomes an ordinary, weekly habit, and that children grow up doing it.
• Gemilut hasadim — acts of loving-kindness. This is the wider category, and it goes beyond money. It includes visiting the sick (bikkur cholim), hospitality to strangers (hachnasat orchim), comforting mourners (nichum avelim), helping a couple to marry, and burying the dead. Crucially, gemilut hasadim can be given with your time and your body, not only your wallet — and it can be given to the rich as well as the poor, because grief and loneliness do not check your bank balance.

Giving well, not just giving. Jewish tradition famously ranks the ways of giving. Giving grudgingly is the lowest. Higher is giving cheerfully; higher still is giving anonymously, so that the giver does not know who received and the receiver does not know who gave — no humiliation, no showing off. And the highest form of all is helping someone become self-sufficient — a loan, a job, a partnership — so that they never need to ask again. That is exactly the logic of the corners of the field, and it is why World Jewish Relief funds livelihoods and training rather than only handouts.

Not quite 'charity'

What kind of action is this?

Tap an action, then tap the category it best fits.

Humanity as stewards of the earth

The Jewish position on the environment begins with a question of ownership.

• G-d created everything, and therefore G-d owns it. Human beings are placed in the world as stewards — trusted to look after something that belongs to someone else and must be handed on.
• In Genesis 2:15, the human being is placed in the garden "to work it and to keep it". Both verbs matter. We may use the world — farming, building, developing are not sinful. But we must also guard it. Use without guarding is theft from G-d and from the next generation.
• This is why Jewish teachers distinguish sharply between stewardship and domination. Being given responsibility for something is not the same as being given permission to wreck it. A steward who ruins the estate has failed, however profitable it was for him.
• Bal tashchit — "do not destroy". The Torah forbids destroying fruit trees even while besieging an enemy city (Deuteronomy 20:19). Jewish tradition extended this into a general principle: needless waste and destruction of anything useful is forbidden. It applies to wasting food, water, fuel, clothing and money.
• Other Torah practices point the same way: the land itself is given a sabbatical year of rest, and Shabbat requires that even the animals and the land stop being worked — a weekly reminder that the world is not simply a machine for producing things.

Steward, not owner

Tikkun olam — repairing the world

Tikkun olam means repair of the world. It is one of the most widely used phrases in modern Jewish life, and the syllabus asks specifically about its application to stewardship of G-d's gift of the environment.

• The underlying idea is that the world as it stands is unfinished and damaged, and that human beings are G-d's partners in mending it. Every act of repair — ecological, social, personal — is a share in that work.
• Applied to the environment it means: reducing waste and consumption (which is bal tashchit in practice); cutting carbon emissions; recycling; planting trees; protecting habitats and clean water; and campaigning politically for environmental protection. Many synagogues now run environmental audits, install solar panels, or build the sukkah from recycled and sustainable materials.
• Why it motivates: if the earth is G-d's gift, then damaging it is not merely unwise but a religious wrong — and repairing it is a mitzvah, a way of serving G-d.

Different views — a mark-earning nuance. In Reform and Liberal Judaism, tikkun olam has become a central organising idea, often the heading under which social justice, environmental and refugee work is done. Some Orthodox thinkers are more cautious: they argue the term has drifted from its original meaning and can end up meaning little more than "good causes", and that a Jew's first duty is to the mitzvot as G-d actually gave them. Almost all Jews, however, agree on the substance — that wasting and wrecking G-d's world is wrong.

Key terms in J6

Tap a term on the left, then its meaning on the right.

Do not destroy

Jewish organisations that relieve poverty

The syllabus names three. Learn what each one actually does and who it helps — a vague answer earns little.

• Tzedek — a British Jewish organisation whose name means justice. It works on overseas development in some of the world's poorest communities, working with local partners on projects such as education, health and income generation. Crucially, it helps people regardless of their religion, on the principle that poverty does not check whether you are Jewish. It also runs Jewish education and volunteering programmes so that British Jews learn about global poverty and act on it.
• Jewish Care — the largest health and social care organisation serving the Jewish community in Britain. It runs care homes, community centres and day centres; supports people living with dementia; provides mental health services; runs services for Holocaust survivors and refugees; and supports carers and people who are lonely or isolated. It is a direct, practical answer to the commandment to honour the elderly and to care for the vulnerable within one's own community.
• World Jewish Relief — the British Jewish community's international humanitarian agency. It was founded in 1933, as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, to help Jews escaping Nazi Germany, and it organised the Kindertransport that brought thousands of Jewish children to Britain. Today it responds to emergencies and disasters and runs long-term programmes helping people out of poverty — job training, livelihoods, and support for refugees — and it helps Jewish and non-Jewish people alike.

J6.3(b) — your own country. The syllabus expects you to know about groups and organisations particular to your own country that relieve poverty in the national or local community. Find out what your local Jewish community actually supports — a food bank, a soup kitchen, a night shelter, a refugee drop-in — and be able to name it and say what it does. A named local example is worth more than a general statement.

Which organisation?

Spiritual needs, and what motivates the giving

The spiritual as well as the physical needs of those who suffer (J6.3c). Jewish organisations — like the religious charities of other faiths — consistently argue that a person is more than a set of physical needs. Someone in poverty, or who has survived a disaster, needs food, shelter and medicine; but they also need dignity, company, someone to listen, and to be treated as a person rather than a case number. This is why Jewish Care provides community and companionship alongside nursing, why hospital and prison chaplains exist, and why the highest form of tzedakah is the kind that leaves the receiver self-sufficient and unhumiliated. Different religious groups often work together on exactly this point.

Jewish religious teachings as a motivation for organised charity work (J6.3d) — this is the bullet examiners most often find missing. Be able to give the reasons:

• Tzedakah is justice, not optional generosity — the poor have a claim on what you have.
• G-d is the creator and owner of everything; your wealth is entrusted to you, not absolutely yours.
• The Torah commands it: love your neighbour; do not stand idly by; open your hand; leave the corners of the field.
• Imitating G-d: G-d is described as clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and comforting the mourner — and Jews are called to walk in G-d's ways.
• Memory: you were strangers in the land of Egypt. A people who were once slaves and once refugees has a particular duty towards today's poor and today's refugees.
• Chosenness as responsibility (see J2): being chosen means more duties, not more privileges — and being a light to others.
• Tikkun olam: the world is unfinished, and human beings are G-d's partners in repairing it.

Why organise?

"Giving money is the most important way a Jew can help others." Discuss.

Reaching a judgement: the strongest answers argue that Judaism deliberately refuses to let giving be reduced to money — and that the ranking of tzedakah, which puts self-sufficiency at the top, proves it. But do not evade the question: state which you find more convincing, and say why.

The big ideas to know

You have now covered every bullet of J6 Religion and social action. Press Finish to see your score.