Tzedakah

Tonight Drew and I explained the concept of tzedakah to Rachel. I ordered a lovely tzedakah box from our synagogue store and it arrived in the mail today. So, while she was finishing her carrots at dinner, we told Rachel that although we're not rich, and we work hard for the money we earn, we believe in giving to people who are less fortunate -- not all kids have a roof over their heads, clothing, enough food, etc. So anytime we have spare change, we'll put it into the tzedakah box and at the end of the year we'll make a family decision about what charitable cause to give the money to.

Rachel followed everything we said very closely and then said, "Ohh, no!" She was distressed that she had money locked up in her piggy bank (one of the baby gifts we received). We explained that it was fine to keep it there, but in the future she should apportion her money: spend part of it, save part of it and give part of it to charity.

"Guess what I'm going to do with my money when I'm older?" she said. "I'm going to save it for when I grow up. And when I grow up I'm going to save some for myself and save the rest and put it in my OWN tzedakah box!"

Yeah, we think she gets the point.

***

"When I move to a faraway house, can you live right next door?" she asked at dinner tonight.

"Of course, sweetie! We'd love to!" we answered. "If you want us that close," Drew added.

"We would have to watch out for my kids, though," she mused.

***

"Everyone, can I tell you about my day?" Rachel said at dinner. "I cut out magazines, and I made sheep, and put the eyes on, and I read the book of Snow White, and played in the big room, I did stories and it was about Gossie (from a book called "Gossie the Gosling" that we have), and we read color books and we did them in Spanish and English, and then we played in the big room again and then we got our stuff and then Daddy picked me up. And that was the end of my day!"