158 Daniel Schiff

individual concerned, but also owes a great deal to the community's preparedness to utilize the products or the services that person offers Wealth, clearly, does not strictly correlate with individual giftedness or even commitment to hard work. It does, however, depend heavily upon communal participation and the community’s preparedness to support a particular service or product.

Hence, it follows that, since wealth attainment is dependent upon the privilege of being afforded a welcome place within the communal structure, justice demands that each person be required to contribute money and time to support the community from which he or she has benefited. This is, after all, the philosophical premise underlying taxation: according to one’s means, we require everybody to participate in the establishment and maintenance of communal infrastructure that seeks to establish a society of opportunity, dignity and safety for all its members. If participation in taxation were made voluntary, it would probably lead to the creation of certain services and institutions perceived to fulfill a variety of self-interests, but the societal outcome, at best, would be uneven, certainly not a result that would be regarded as“just” in anybody’s terms.

It is, then, important to observe that the Jewish notion of tzedakah is far more akin to that of contemporary taxation than to that of contemporary charity. The tzedakah commandment connotes that contributing toward the ideal of a just society is a requirement that is incumbent upon all those who want to partake in that society. But the Jewish vision of what constitutes a just and righteous society extends beyond what is normally subsumed by the realm of taxation. No! satisfied with basic societal structures and support systems, Jewish law advocates that it is the duty of the individual to help in such a way as to maximize the shared communal enterprise and to raise the bar of human dignity. The Torah’s injunction to“love one’s neighbor 2° oneself”? institutes the predominant theme: Jews are expected 1° stretch themselves toward enhancing their neighbors’ lot, and not 10 be satisfied with simply helping in a perfunctory fashion.’