A Giving Spirit

‘Tzedakah’ is a Jewish word meaning charity, though its origin comes from ‘righteousness’ or ‘justice’, an awareness that the fortunate are only the custodians of the bounty of the Divine. The Talmud describes eight different levels of ‘tzedakah’: giving begrudgingly; giving less than you should, but giving it cheerfully; giving after being asked; giving before being asked; giving when you do not know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows your identity; giving when you know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient doesn’t know your identity; giving when neither party knows the other’s identity; and, enabling the recipient to become self-reliant.

In his book, ‘A Secret Gift’, investigative reporter Ted Gup, explores the stories behind a suitcase of old letters; all addressed to someone named Mr. B. Virdot. Gup discovers that ‘Virdot’ was his own grandfather, Sam Stone, and the letters were responses to an ad run by Stone around the Christmas of 1933, during the Great Depression. In the ad, Stone, identifying himself as Virdot, promises $10 to 75 families if they could explain their need. Some asked only for the bare necessities of life, others a toy perhaps.

Sam Stone was himself an immigrant, a Romanian Jew, who had endured difficult times; perhaps someone who could empathize with the hardship of others. These acts of kindness had an effect on the recipients, changing their lives in ways both big and small.