Generally speaking, one cannot say that one Mitzvah is more important than another. All the commandments were given to us by one G-d and compliance with any of them means that we have fulfilled the will of G-d. Nevertheless, we do find Mitzvot that are singled out by our Sages for their importance.
Chassidic thought reconciles this apparent contradiction by referring to two dimensions of every Mitzvah. The first is the fulfillment of G-d’s will and the second is the function of the Mitzvah to change the person who performs it and the world around him. While every Mitzvah is the same from the perspective of it being G-d’s will, and every Mitzvah we perform creates an eternal bond with G-d, there are myriads of differences between Mitzvot insofar as they pertain to their effects on us and the world.
One of the Mitzvot concerning which our Sages have stated that “it is the equivalent of all other Mitzvot” is the Mitzvah of Tzedakah (usually translated as charity). However, even the Mitzvah of Tzedakah is exceeded in importance by a Mitzvah that appears in this week’s Parsha, loaning money, known colloquially as Gemillut Chassdaim, acts of loving kindness.
Our Sages declare: “Acts of loving kindness are even greater than Tzedakah.” (Talmud, Sukkah) The Talmud then proceeds to give three reasons for this: The reason that applies specifically to the mitzvah of lending money is:
“Tzedakah can only be performed for the poor, whereas acts of kindness (such as lending money) can be performed for the rich and the poor.”
At first glance this explanation itself is in need of explanation. Why should Tzedakah, which is given to the poor, take a back seat, so to speak, to the lending of money to the rich. Moreover, when one gives Tzedakah, one actually parts with his money forever. Isn’t that a greater sacrifice than lending money, where the lender receives the money in return and suffers no loss (except the interest that they could have made had they invested the money in business)?
Perhaps one way of looking at it is to reflect on the perspective offered by Chassidic thought concerning Tzedakah. In truth, we are told, the money that a person gives to a needy person, really belongs to that person. G-d had originally intended for that money to go to him. However, in order to facilitate the act of Tzedakah, G-d temporarily entrusted the rich person with the money that He had intended for the poor. This allows the rich person to exercise his choice to do that which is right. This explains why the translation of Tzedakah is not generosity or goodness but righteousness. By giving Tzedakah one is doing that which is just and right.
Lending money to a rich person, by contrast, is not the same as tzedakah. One cannot say that the money lent was originally intended for the rich borrower, because, in reality, the money is returned to the lender. In effect, when one lends money they are truly parting with the money that G-d gave the lender. By doing so, the lender transcends the boundaries of “what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours,” because even what is truly his, he gives away to another.
Tzedakah, on the other hand, is not really giving that which is yours to someone else. Tzedakah simply rectifies the disparity that G-d allowed to exist in this world; it rights the wrongs of the world. Gemillut Chassadim, acts of loving kindness, by contrast, allows us to go beyond the parameters of a just world, by taking that which was allocated for ourselves and giving it to another. This is breaking out of our boundaries and limiting parameters.
When the Torah introduces the Mitzvah of lending money it uses the term “im” which usually translates as “if.” Rashi, however, points out that here it means “when,” because lending money is not an option, it is a Mitzvah a commandment.
Why then does the Torah use the word Im which can be translated if. It could have used another, more common, Hebrew word such as Ka’asher?
It may be suggested: The word Im consists of the Hebrew letters of Aleph and Mem, which are said to be the initials of the historical leaders of the Jewish people who were also their liberators: Aaron and Moses, (the liberators from Egyptian bondage) Esther (which begins with an Aleph in Hebrew) and Mordechai (the liberators of the Jewish people during the saga of Purim) and Eliyhau and Moshiach (who will usher in the future Redemption and the Messianic Age)
By prefacing the Mitzvah of lending money with the word Im, the Torah thereby is conveying the message that the way to hasten the process of liberation, I.e., breaking out of the boundaries that constrain us, is by increasing our acts of goodness and kindness, especially when the kindness is not just to “repair the world,”’ but, moreover, to upset the balance and allow the good to break out of its boundaries.
Tzedakah simply rectifies the disparity that G-d allowed to exist in this world; it rights the wrongs of the world. Gemillut Chassadim, by contrast, allows us to go beyond the parameters of a just world, by taking that which was allocated for ourselves and giving it to another. This is breaking out of our boundaries and limiting parameters.