{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "hosting-poor-right-thing-do-or-just-nice-thing-do", "title": "Hosting the Poor: The Right Thing to do or Just a Nice Thing to Do?", "author": "JonathanB", "author_handle": "jmb2154", "author_initials": "JO", "covertext": "כל דכפין ייתי ויכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח Whomever is hungry: come and eat! Whomever needs: come and partake in the P...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104228/conversions/jmb2154-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104228/jmb2154.jpeg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:right;\"><strong> <em>כל דכפין ייתי ויכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח<br /> </em> </strong></p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><strong> <em><br /> Whomever is hungry: come and eat! Whomever needs: come and partake in the Passover rites</em> <em>!</em> </strong><br /> <br /><span> Do we mean it, or are we saying it because it's in the text?  Maybe it's like the Egyptians telling the Jews after the Ten Plagues: \"Please, take all of our riches...just leave Egypt before we all die!\"  Perhaps we're being passive-aggressive.  Perhaps cognitive dissonance is at play: we don't really want the poor to come, but if we keep saying it, it'll make us want them to come...or we're just being genuinely nice.</span><br /> <br /><span> Charity is a feel-good and feel-bad concept.  It's universally good, but its extent is strongly divisive.  Call it \"Charity,\" \"Welfare,\" \"Entitlement,\" \"Support,\" \"Investment,\" \"Donation,\" \"Support,\" \"Disability Insurance,\" or what-have-you, and we realize that it comes in many different forms with many different levels of merit.  It's merit may seem to scale with physical and financial sacrifice.</span><br /> <br /><span> Fortunately, Judaism offers many role models for charity.  For instance, the Talmud (Baba Metzi'a 86b) says that Abraham and Sarah, the paradigm of hospitality, served each of their guests a bull when they would crash their tent.  On the negative side, the Talmud (Gittin 56a) blames the final destruction of Jewish Jerusalem (70 C.E.) on a stubborn wealthy wedding host who wouldn't host his enemy at any cost or benefit.</span></p>\n<p><strong><span>Is Charity an Obligation or Just a Nice Thing to Do?</span></strong></p>\n<p>Yet, despite our steadfast support for charity and clear signs in the Bible, we must categorize charity as one of three ethical levels, in order of obligation:</p>\n<p>1) Charity is neither mandated, nor are we expected to do it.  In Hebrew, we'd say it's לפנים משורת הדין, or \"ex gratia\" in legalese, where it's just totally beyond what the ethics expects from us.  No one asked you to bring donuts to work, but we'd all appreciate it if you did.  No one asked you to travel to a disaster zone to aid relief efforts, but we're grateful for it.  When we invite the poor to our Passover seder, we actually mean it and are genuinely magnanimous in our efforts.</p>\n<p><br /> 2) Charity isn't mandated, but we're expected to do it.  You don't merge on the highway at the last second and you give up your seat up to the handicapped, but not because it's the law...it's because it's the right thing to do.  We invite the poor to our Passover seder because it's a nice Jewish custom as recalled in the text of the Haggadah and not doing so would be awkward and un-Jewish.</p>\n<p><br /> 3) Charity is mandated.  You volunteer for the local ambulance corps because someone must do it.  You give money towards social security because society cannot allow its own to sleep in the streets and be hungry lest everyone suffer.  We invite the poor to our Passover seder because the words are written in the Haggadah that we will invite the poor to our Passover seder.<br /> <br /> The term for an ethic that is beyond the norm is \" <em>supererogation</em>. \"   Depending on which level of obligation a particular charity, your recommended level of giving will change.  For instance, if charity is mandated, you may be required to tithe your income.  Some may argue further: people do not own property and they are responsible for sharing their wealth equitably.  Therefore, charity is not even a nice thing to do: it's the required natural course of action.<br /> <br /> The same dilemma applies when dealing with any ethical norms, religious or secular.  For instance, is the dress code in a particular circumstance, a wedding, workplace, or Passover seder, a custom, \"מנהג,\" or a mandate, \"חובה?\"  May I force everyone behind me in the grocery line wait longer while I grab another a bottle of Peisachovka (Passover vodka) as a gift for my seder host?<br /> <br /> On this holiday of freedom, Passover, let's do kindness out of true free will.  Let's ask questions that we wouldn't normally ask, invite others who we normally wouldn't meet, and raise ourselves to levels that we normally hadn't acheived.<br /> <br /> <strong><span></span></strong></p>\n<p><strong><span>Follow-Up Questions:</span></strong></p>\n<p>1.) Give an example of an act of kindness that everyone is expected to do.  Give an example of kindness that is above and beyond what anyone is expected to do?</p>\n<p>2.) If someone asked you about an act which wasn't required, but was a nice thing to do, how would you respond?  Would different people have different levels of obligation?</p>\n<p>3.) Should charity and kind deeds be mandated?  Would a mandate enhance or degrade the greatness of the good deed and willingness of people to perform the good deed?</p>\n<p><strong><span>References</span></strong></p>\n<p>Heyd, David, \"Supererogation\", <em>The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition)</em>, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = &lt;http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/supererogation/&gt;.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Unknown", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 86, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Hosting the Poor: The Right Thing to do or Just a Nice Thing to Do? | Passover haggadah by JonathanB", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/hosting-poor-right-thing-do-or-just-nice-thing-do", "og:title": "Hosting the Poor: The Right Thing to do or Just a Nice Thing to Do? | Passover haggadah by JonathanB", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "JonathanB", "handle": "jmb2154", "author_initials": "JO", "total_books": 1, "total_clips": 2, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "free-enough-egypt-free-enough-serve-god", "title": "Free Enough from Egypt? Free Enough to Serve God!", "author": "JonathanB", "author_handle": "jmb2154", "author_initials": "JO", "covertext": "השתא הכא בשנה הבאה בארעא דישראל, השתא עבדי לשנה הבאה בני חורין This year, we are here. Next year, in the Land of Isr...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104228/conversions/jmb2154-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104228/jmb2154.jpeg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:right;\"> <em>השתא הכא בשנה הבאה בארעא דישראל, השתא עבדי לשנה הבאה בני חורין<br /> <br /> </em> </p>\n<p> <em>This year, we are here. Next year, in the Land of Israel!</em> </p>\n<p> <em>This year, we are slaves. Next year, as free people?</em> <br /> <br /> Free...to serve God!<br /> <br /> <strong>Freedom is awesome.  But too much of it can be bad for your health.</strong>  Just visit school cafeterias that banned soft drinks and fattening foods and the cities that banned trans-fats in restaurants. An undisciplined child, a society without rules, and roads without traffic lights or parking regulations would be fun for only a small period of time. It is said that some structure \"keeps you out of trouble.\"</p>\n<p>Do rules and structure always yield amazing results?  As soon as the Jews are brought out of Egypt, they sojourn in a sweltering desert for forty years longer than necessary, enduring a near-death-by-chariot experience at the Sea of Reeds, lose their freedom to ignite fire on Saturdays, are forced to eat the Manna (or else!), and accepted the Torah on Mt. Sinai, forever!  It makes sense why they would complain incessantly...and want to return to Egypt.  And the Jews didn't consent to any of this in advance.<br /> <br /> Yet, we know that life isn't so simple...it can't be a free-for-all.  Whether you think that people are naturally evil-inclined, like Hobbes, or good-inclined, like Locke, everyone would agree that we need some government, either for keeping people from hurting each other (Hobbes), or for allocating property efficiently (Locke).  Can you imagine LA traffic with no regulations?<br /> <br /> <strong>Where do we draw the line?</strong><br /> <br /> Isaiah Berlin, in his \"Two Concepts of Liberty\" (1958), distinguishes between Negative Liberty and Positive Liberty.  Negative liberty is the freedom that comes from fewer restrictions.  It's like the freedom from Egypt - you don't have to worry about infanticide, building pyramids, or other inconveniences.  Positive liberty is the freedom that comes from greater restrictions.  It's the freedom that comes from parking regulations, and paying dues to society.<br /> <br /> Each kind of freedom has obvious goods and controversies.  <br /> <br /> An example of how having strong Negative Liberty would be a great idea is for civil rights: Most people would agree that people should be free to voice their opinion, practice their faith, and own property.  Controversially, though, would be the liberty to carry a weapon, burn an American flag, and obtain an abortion.  Most would argue that Negative Liberty has gone too far when people cry \"Fire!\" in a movie theater or use their right to bear arms to limit someone else's right to own something.<br /> <br /> Positive Liberty is no exception.  Most people would agree that children would be freer if they were forced to go to school, not given alcohol, and forced to have painful vaccines.  Courts rely on Positive Liberty to limit Negative Liberty to punish criminals and recover restitution. Controversially, though, is the mandate to buy health care, requirement to serve on a jury, and pay taxes.  Most would argue that Positive Liberty has gone too far when totalitarian regimes use it as an excuse to oppress their subjects.<br /> <br /> Jewish philosophy has instances of both concepts of liberty.  On the side of Negative Liberty, it is stated that humans have free will, with a good and evil inclination.  Slaves are protected from physical abuse, and land is protected.  On the side of Positive Liberty, there are instances where a person's rights are restricted to allow the person to reach a higher ethical potential.  These include God hardening Pharaoh's heart to reduce Pharaoh's free will and further the divine plan, courts forcing a recalcitrant spouse to submit or accept a writ of divorce, or land being liberated to the poor during the Sabbatical Year.<br /> <br /> Thus, leaving Egypt to serve God in the desert would be a form of Positive Liberty.<br /> <br /> <span><strong>Follow-Up Discussion:</strong></span><br /> 1) Think of three kinds of Negative Liberty, e.g. rights, that would be considered universally acceptable.  Now, think of three kinds of Positive Liberty, e.g. \"entitlements\" (in political parlance) that would be considered universally acceptable.<br /> <br /> 2) In the case of Negative Liberty, when does a right become so detrimental that it should be limited?  In other words, when does Positive Liberty become preferable?  Ideas for criteria: age, self-sustainability of a person, criminal history, harm to oneself, harm to others, culture, family, enforceability...<br /> <br /> 3) Do you feel that your ethical system offers you more Positive Liberty than the Negative Liberty that you surrender?  How does the closeness you have with adherents, personal meaning, intellectual understanding, and other benefits compare with the burden of the rules that you adhere to?<br /> <br /> <strong><span>References</span></strong><span>:</span><br /> Berlin, Isaiah. Four Essays on Liberty. 1969.<br /> <br /> Carter, Ian, \"Positive and Negative Liberty\", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = &lt;http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/liberty-positive-negative/&gt;.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Based in large part on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 83, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Free Enough from Egypt? Free Enough to Serve God! | Passover haggadah by JonathanB", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/hosting-poor-right-thing-do-or-just-nice-thing-do", "og:title": "Hosting the Poor: The Right Thing to do or Just a Nice Thing to Do? | Passover haggadah by JonathanB", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } }