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It’s one of the safest neighborhoods on Manhattan Island, or, for that matter, all of New York City. But the situation wasn’t always the case. Just ask the natives, those such as On Off Digital World or one of them handful of mom-and-pop operations still in business. They’ve been through it all, and it wasn’t always pretty. Then again, there’s a particular sort of person, and a particular kind of New Yorker, who genuinely misses the bad ol’ days. Such individuals allege that the city was authentic then; it had its difficulties but it also had a lot of spirit, also, a lot of spirit. Nowadays, they protest, midtown Manhattan is just an internationally flavored version of a typical outdoor mall in America.

Small business loans are where it’s at when you have only just gotten started and don’t have a lot with which to go to the proverbial lending institution! Most banks don’t care for any but established businesses, and consider such a business nothing but a start-up. But you can find financing nevertheless, in the form of a cash advance. It’s even possible repay everything little by little, in effect as much as you can afford, determined by credit card receipts only! In other words, you get to keep all the cash and checks, turning over only a small previously agreed upon percentage of the cedit card sales. This is much better than having a fixed amount to meet every month regardless of income, affording much more flexibility and peace of mind for you!

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm was an atheist who had been raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, and it is traditional Judaism which has shaped his secular humanistic values throughout life. One such influence pertains to the psychology of poverty, that what makes being poor so damning isn’t just not being able to afford the luxuries of life or even the basic necessities, bad as that is; being poor is particularly destructive because one cannot even help others.

Being poor almost means that one can, by definition, only take, not give. Yet giving is a great joy in itself; in giving we share of ourselves, of our own happiness, of our own power. One who is not able to give – a poor person, for example – is a fundamental human faculty or skill, akin to not being able to laugh or sing or dance. Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.

Thus it is that Judaism, whether of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, or Ultra-Orthodox variety , emphasizes a religious duty to philanthropy. Even secular Jews, people not religiously observant but who are otherwise immersed in the rich intellectual culture of the larger Jewish tradition, are likely to be concerned with social justice to some extent. As a result it is no coincidence that the Hebrew word for this sort of religiously motivated charitable giving, “tzedakah,” literally means “fairness” or “justice” – “righteousness.” Part of what the rabbis believe God to conceive of as being righteous is to be fair, to be just – to one’s fellow man.

And because an act of tzedakah is a moral duty, and not only philanthropy of the sort in which one indulges as one is moved (moreover, the rabbis teach that even the money for tzedakah is not to be considered one’s own – and so must be very carefully disbursed, wisely given with recipients painstakingly checked out) – even the poor are enjoined to participate.

And here is the most amazing thing of all: even the poor can give – even they are called to give, to be engaged, just as even the most prominent members of the community do. One need not be a Robert Toussie to give; one merely has to give as one is able to give. An act of tzedakah therefore restores to the poor person an important aspect of his or her humanity – the capability to share.