Fasting and tzedakkah TB Sanhedrin 35

 

Throughout the Jewish calendar year, there are two major fasts, Yom Kippur and Tisha B’av (the ninth day of Av), and several minor fasts, like the fast of Esther right before Purim. By fasting on these days we do not expend any money for food. Today’s daf TB Sanhedrin 35 teaches us what and when we should do with all that saving. We should use it for the purpose of the mitzvah of feeding the hungry. Withholding tzedakkah is akin to murder.

“Rabbi Elazar says that Rabbi Yitzḥak says, as Rabbi Elazar says that Rabbi Yitzḥak says: Every fast day on which the distribution of charity [tzedaka] is left overnight, this is considered as if one spilled the blood of the poor people, as they fasted all day in the expectation that they would receive charity before the day was over in order to purchase food with which to break their fasts. As it is stated: “She that was full of justice [tzedek], righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.” The Gemara clarifies: And this statement applies with regard to the delaying of the distribution of bread and dates, which are ready to be consumed (and will spoil if left overnight-gg); but with regard to the delaying of the distribution of money, wheat, and barley, we have no problem with it.” (Sefaria.org translation)

A fast as a religious observance is only effective when coupled with righteous living. Back in Second Isaiah days the children of Israel wondered out loud why their fasts weren’t effective. “Why, when we fasted, did You not see?
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?”

God answers them through his prophet Isaiah:

Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!

Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
Your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high.

 

Is such the fast I desire,
A day for people to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when GOD is favorable?

 

No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yolk

 

It is to share your bread with the hungry, (my emphasis)
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe them,
And not to ignore your own kin. (Is 58:3b-7)

 

No wonder we read these verses on Yom Kippur morning to remind us fasting without a commitment to righteous living is an ineffective method of teshuvah, repentance.