Ask The Rabbi!!

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by AllOGistics

First, this is a great thread Rabbi! I have been gone for a week; this is the first thread I've caught up on.

I was reading an interview and the interviewee is Jewish. They kept referring to zedeka (sp?). I'm sure that I didn't spell that right, and I think that there was a "T" in there somewhere. From the context, it sounded like the word refers to charity or PIF. Is this correct? Sorry again for the spelling errors.

You are correct. Tzedaka is the word in hebrew for "Charity" or even better translated exactly as "Righteousness" or "Justice" - meaning a righteous act (not in the Bill&Ted sense)
Tzedakah is more than a Charitable act. It is sharing with others what G-d in His kindness has given us.

Tz is the letter Tzaddi(k) in hebrew, sometimes transliterated as Z, but it makes a tz sound as in "Hertz"