In this week's Parsha, Vayeitzei, We read about Yaakov’s dream, in which G-d said to him, "The land on which you are lying, to you I will give it and to your descendants. And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south. And in you and your children shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Yaakov wakes up and makes the following vow, "If G-d will be with me and will protect me in this way, he will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear and I will return to my father's house in peace, and the L-rd will be my G-d... From everything which You will give me, I will give one tenth to You".

Tzedakah (charity) is an important mitzvah and has special powers, as we see from the following Talmudic sayings: Rabbi Assi said, "The mitzvah of Tzedakah is compared to all other mitzvot put together".

In the name of Rabbi Elazar, "Why is charity likened to armor ? Just like the coat of armor is made of many small pieces, so too, every peruta and peruta (small coin) adds up to a great total."

Rabbi Chanina said, "Why is Tzedaka compared to a garment ? Just like a garment is made up of many threads, so too, each coin and coin given to charity adds up to a great amount."

Rabbi Dustai ben Reb Yanai explains the greatness of Tzedakah, "When a simple person presents a gift to a great king, the gift may or may not be accepted by the king. Even if it is accepted, one is still not guaranteed the privilege of meeting the king. But the Holy One blessed be He acts differently. One who gives even a peruta (small coin) to a poor person acquires great merit and enters the presence of G-d. As is written in Psalms (17:15), "Through Tzedek (from the word Tzedakah) I will see Your face!".

Rabbi Yishmael explains the benefit of giving charity, “Whoever trims their possessions and gives away to charity will be saved from harsh judgment in the after-life. This is similar to two sheep who were crossing the water. One was sheared and one was not. The sheared lamb will easily pass through the water, while the other one will be weighed down by all the water that was absorbed in its wool."

In Isaiah (chapter 10) the prophet uses the expression, "plant your charity..." Our sages explain “planting charity” as follows: If a person walks down the street and loses $100, he/she will, naturally, agonize over it. Even if the person later finds $200, he/she may think, "If I didn't lose the $100, I would now have $300!"

However, when a person loses the contents of a sack of wheat while walking through his field and next year finds his field full of freshly grown wheat it would be foolish to think that had he not lost the sack of wheat last year he would have more now! For everything he has now is a direct result of the "loss" which he had. This is the Jewish way of viewing charity. This is why Isaiah states; "Plant your charity."