Tzedakah

Giving tzedakah brings sustenance to a needy person and is a life-sustaining act, one that lets us imitate Hashem, who gives life to the living, and walk in His ways. The word tzedakah, usually translated as charity, literally means justice or righteousness. Charity suggests the generosity of the rich toward the poor, while tzedakah means that one is fulfilling an obligation, giving not from what is his own but from what Hashem has entrusted to him to pass on to others.