In my cab to a strange business meeting last night, I had a Lebanese cab driver. He asked me what I did, and when I said I raised funds for Mass General, writing all the thank you notes to rich people, he started telling me about the Muslim theories behind giving.
He spoke about "zakat", the philosophy of giving in Islam. In his culture, giving was more of an obligation, not a thing to be congratulated for. He told me that the best way for a wealthy person to give was in such a manner that the recipient didn't know the giver, and the giver didn't know the recipient, commenting that in this type of situation, nobody could feel better than or worse than the other party. There should be neither pride nor shame in giving or receiving, he said. Also, he said, the idea of people tacking their names all over buildings or donor lists, expecting a pat on the back for giving, when they were in the financial position to be generous, was silly.
This made total sense to me. I told him that the word for exactly this concept in Judaism is "tzedakah", or obligation. Giving is expected of everyone, in greater amounts from the wealthy, and in small amounts from everyone, and flashy or public recognition of tzedakah is unnecessary and runs counter to the underlying philosophy. There are 8 levels of giving, described by a Jewish philosopher. The top level is teaching or enabling someone how to support themselves so they don't require money from others, and the level right below that is the double-blind giving described by my Muslim cab driver. He laughed when we realized the parallels between our two cultures, when for others simply realizing there was a Jew and a Muslim in the car could have been awkward. We both smiled discussing the things in common between the two beliefs and cultures were and how not many people pause to realize the links.
When I asked why he left Lebanon, the conversation segued into a Munich-like dialogue(if you haven't seen the movie, please do), about how politicians and people at the top create much of the conflict in the Middle East, while everyday people just want to live their lives, support their families, and be happy, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, or political affiliation. He left Lebanon, where politicians at the top almost caused a civil war a few years ago, hoping for a place with less conflict and the chance to live a good life.
In a world where we're always dead set on finding the differences, whether Democrat/Republican, man/woman, Jew/Muslim, American/foreigner, I hopped out of my cab, truly touched by the simple and compassionate conversation between two regular people, willing to see how similar all people are.
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