Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity by Gregg E. Gardner (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity by Gregg E. Gardner Andrew Higginbotham Gregg E. Gardner. Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. xiii + 284 pp. Gregg E. Gardner has previously written on the topic of charity in his Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2015). In the present work, he takes the next step in this investigation “to help fill the gap in critical research on wealth, poverty, and charity in late antique Judaism” (2). In chapter 1, he reveals that the Tannaim occupied the top two strata of wealth in their society (middle-class artisans and merchants and upper-class landowners). From such a position, they perceived “poverty as a possible impediment to Torah study” (22) and their texts often reflect the perspective of the benefactor (36). In chapter 2, Gardner examines the rabbinic interpretations of the biblical commandment to provide for the poor during the harvest. His investigation reveals that pe’ah, gleanings and forgotten produce, never belong to the householder, as they are portrayed as God’s direct beneficence to the poor. In chapter 3, Gardner contrasts the negative commandments involving the harvest with the positive rabbinic command to give charity from one’s own wealth. Individual direct almsgiving thus forms the center of the present book and the counterpoint to the focus on organized charity in Gardner’s previous work. This line of study begins in chapter 3 with the preliminary observation that “charity [is] given to the living and to the poor” (59). In chapter 4, Gardner turns the lens of his investigation onto the content of that charity, that is, wealth. Mammon is perceived more neutrally by the rabbis than by other groups of the period (Christians, Qumran, etc.), perhaps because, as Gardner argues, “the cultural and social world in which the rabbis lived was increasingly monetized” (97). In chapter 5, Gardner extends this monetization idea with a study of divine favor as “wages” for fulfilling divine commandments. In chapter 6, Gardner explores another aspect of charity, that is, as a mechanism by which to preserve one’s wealth through “investment” in the divine treasure scheme. The Greco-Roman model of benefaction by which elites built buildings or public works out of their wealth (euergetism) is then seen by the rabbis in tension with the material dilemma of squandering versus spending one’s resources. Chapters 5 and 6 then form their own duality, examining the polarities of earned and invested wealth along the spectrum of the divine-human relationship. Chapter 7 explores rabbinic anxiety over the accumulation and loss of wealth. Gardner argues here that the charity system established by the rabbis can also be seen as a safety net against their own apprehension about the ephemerality of one’s net worth. Finally, chapter 8 compares rabbinic views on wealth and charity to early Christian parallels as both groups became more prosperous and integrated in society. The target audience for this book appears to be both scholars of early rabbinic Judaism, as well as those interested in the interaction between the material and [End Page 444] ideological worlds in the late antique Greco-Roman world and its peripheral provinces. Gardner’s goal of elucidating the concept of charity in the Tannaitic sources both extracts it from centuries of accumulated practice and sets its origin in the midst of larger economic and social forces. The book’s methodology is well balanced, focusing on the primary texts within their larger rhetorical contexts, and then reading those texts in light of a variety of useful sociological and literary-critical theories. In my opinion, Gardner accomplishes his stated goal of understanding how wealth, both its possession and perception, has shaped the contours of tannaitic discussions about poverty and life in general. Being that I am supportive of Gardner’s presentation, allow me to explore some strengths of the work that others may perceive as weaknesses. First, Gardner does an excellent job of contextualizing the discussion for nonexperts in the field of rabbinics. However, the first few chapters are sometimes mired in these background expositions. That said, I found the progression of each chapter and the...