DEUT741 The use of the hyphenated word tzedakah-charity indicates equality between tzedakah and charity, and for those unfamiliar with either the Hebrew word or the concepts of tzedakah, they might indeed appear similar. However, from the psychological and philosophical viewpoints, they are quite different. One only needs to begin by analyzing the two different words to see a vast difference. The word charity comes from the Latin caritas, similar to the French cheri, which means love. In a similar vein, the word philanthropy is derived from the Greek philo, which means love, and throp, which means man. Thus, philanthropy means love of man. Therefore, the non-Jewish or Christian basis of charity is love. When I feel compassion for an unfortunate person, I give charity. The word tzedakah comes from the Hebrew tzedek, which means righteous, justice (Deuteronomy 16:20) or the correct thing to do (Leviticus 19:36). The Jew, then, must give tzedakah because it is the proper and right thing to do, not because he or she has a particular feeling for the recipient. One very practical difference would be the case of an insulting, cursing, foul-smelling beggar who demanded charity. It certainly would be hard to feel any love or compassion for such individual. Nevertheless, Judaism obligates the Jew to give this person tzedakah (Maimonides, Hilchot Matanot Aniyim 10:3). Where does the Jewish obligation to give tzedakah originate? Why can't the Jew say, If the person is foul-mouthed I will not reward such behavior? Why can't the Jew say, I worked for my money, and he should work for his? The answer is that it is not the Jew's money to begin with. God clearly says (Haggai 2:8) that all the money, gold, and silver in the world belongs to Him, and not to man. The psalmist says (Psalms 24:1) that everything in the world belongs to God, implying that nothing belongs to man. Therefore, in the act of tzedakah, a Jew is giving back to God what is already His. This is exactly what the MIshnah teaches (Avot 3:7), based on the verse in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 29:14). Since it is His to begin with, He tells to give back a small percentage and then we can use the rest (which still belongs to Him). Therefore, we are obligated to give because it is not our money at all, and God makes our keeping the eighty to ninety percent conditional upon giving the other ten to twenty percent to tzedakah. It is for this reason that some Jewish people have opened special tzedakah bank accounts where they take off a percentage of their income before it even reaches the regular bank accounts. In addition to the psychological advantage (the person does not feel that he or she is taking money out of his or her pocket), it is actually the more correct way to behave on a philosophical level as well, since the money never belongs to the person. We can now understand why a Jew must give to that unkempt, cursing poor person, irrespective of feelings--God, the owner of the money, told us to give. The Abarbanel (Commentary on Deuteronomy 15:7-8) says that we must look at ourselves like a broker, handling someone else's money. When it is our job to use someone else's funds, we must be very careful about every decision we make in regard to how the monies are invested and spent. If the owner tells us to invest in one particular manner, we must adhere to his or her request or the owner will take away the money and use another broker. God gives us His money, and tells us to invest part of it into tzedakah. If we do not follow the instructions, the owner, God, may decide to give these funds to someone else.