I was born in 1938 so my earliest recollections are from the war years of the 40’s. We were a pretty news-savvy family because my father was in the news business. In fact, in 1944, he became the first front-line radio war correspondent.

When we learned the truth about the unspeakable cruelty of the Nazis toward Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the incurably ill, and others, it was, even to my news-savvy family, overwhelming and difficult to grasp in its enormity. And, of course, their most barbaric efforts were directed at you know who.

When Hitler came to power, there were nine million Jews living in Europe. Only three million – one third -- survived.

Please permit me a personal aside… Tiktin is a small town in northeastern Poland. Jews first settled there in 1522. Toward the end of August, 1941, the SS assembled the 2,000 Jewish Tiktiners, marched them into a nearby forest, put them into pits, and murdered them. Tiktin is the town from which my grandparents had emigrated.

I think that partly because of the Nazis’ brutality, my parents, their siblings, and the rabbis in our orthodox synagogue taught me by their words and actions that our obligation as Jews is to be morally upright… to be kind, honest, giving, trustworthy. To be, in the words of Isaiah, “a light unto the nations.” In short, to practice tzedakah.

While tzedakah is most often defined as charity, it really is much more. It is a kind of charity that encompasses righteousness, justice, fairness. I remember being told that in Jewish thinking and tradition, aiding those in need is not merely expected. It is required.

When I was nine, I learned about Maimonides’s eight levels of tzedakah. Its emphasis is on generosity, anonymous giving, and, at the top rung of the ladder, helping the poor become self-sufficient.

From time immemorial, rabbis contended that God is especially concerned about those in need and, therefore, to God, tzedakah’s value is equal to the value of all the other commandments combined.

We also are told that on Rosh Hashanah, God records our deeds – both good and not so good - in His not so little black book… Then, on Yom Kippur, He looks at what he has written and inscribes his judgment about our spiritual fate for the coming year. Classical rabbis held that God considers three mitzvot - tzedakah, repentance, and prayer - as the activities that can motivate Him to be merciful when He judges us.

It is said that if you put two Jews in one room, you’ll get three opinions.

For me personally, I treasure the beauty, the customs, and the magnificent traditions of our Judaic heritage. Because of that and because of what I believe is my obligation as a Jew, I have tried to live my life according to the values that tzedakah requires of us all.

May the year 5782 bring each of you love, peace, and happiness.

Michael Goldstein