Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse." - Proverbs 28:27

GospelHouseMusic.com is cheerfully committed to donate a minimum 10% of our income to help the poor. This is for the purpose of tikkun olam, or the “repair of the world.” This is for “charity,” (tzedakah in Hebrew) however, not in the sense of mere money, but reflects an attitude to effect righteousness within the world. Helping others is the just, and the right thing to do -- and the obligation of tzedakah rests on everyone, rich and poor alike. Freely we were given Salvation through Jesus (Yeshua) and freely we are to give to others.

The Hebrew blessing itself is quite simple:
"Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with thy commandments, and commanded us about giving Tzedakah."

The Torah (5 Books of Moses) speaks about giving charity in Deut. 15:7 ("If there will be a poor man among you... you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand toward your poor brother; you shall open your hand to him and shall give him enough for his needs") and Lev. 25:35 ("If your brother becomes poor... you shall support him, stranger or settler, and he shall live with you").

Maimonides lists the eight levels of charity in descending order:
a) Giving a poor person work so he will not have to depend on charity
b) Giving charity anonymously to an unknown recipient
c) Giving it anonymously to a known recipient
d) Giving it to an unknown recipient
e) Giving it before being asked
f) Giving adequately after being asked
g) Giving willingly, but inadequately
h) Giving unwillingly

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Deuteronomy 24:19-21 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy
field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to
fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the
widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine
hands. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the
boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for
the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt
not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

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