One little goat, one little goat, that Father bought for two zuzim.

It's the first night of passover tonight (we just had a lovely Seder with some of the wife's coworkers, and in the spirit of the holidays, the time has come to choose this months Rooted Cosmopolitans Charity of the Month. This month, we'll be guided by the notion of Tzedakah, the religious concept in Judaism that translates roughly into charity, but with a notion of social justice as well. According to Maimonides, perhaps the greatest philosopher among the medieval rabbis, the highest form of Tzedakah is:

Giving a poor person work (or loaning him money to start a business) so he will not have to depend on charity. This is because the person is now free from having to rely on charity. The giver has not just helped the recipient for the short while, but instead for the rest of their life.

In honor of a rather familiar passover song, we're going to try to give a family a goat, which means that the Charity of the Month is The Heifer Project. Operating worldwide, they give animals to needy families, but also teach them about sustainable agriculture and then ask them to pass along this knowledge, along with the female offspring of the animal, to their neighbors, strengthening communities worldwide.

Heifer International works to ensure that the gift of each animal will eventually help an entire community to become self-sustaining. Animals such as goats, water buffalo and camels are seven M animals- they provide meat, milk, muscle, manure, money, materials and motivation. Once its immediate needs have been met, a family is free to sell any excess at market. Heifer International provides a breeding animal along with the gift animal so that it can produce offspring. Participating families are required to "pass on the gift", that is: they must give at least one of the female offspring to a neighbor who has undergone Heifer's training. In time, that neighbor will pass along one of the offspring of its animal, and so on.

To make things more convenient, I've set up a gift registry on their website, which can be found here. In honor of passover, we have the option of giving a goat, or for the Simon's Rockers out there, you may also choose a llama. No need to buy an entire animal all at once, you can buy fractions of an animal as well (apparently, they wait until the fractions add up to a whole, rather than shipping them a leg or piece of a torso at a time). I chipped in for a share of both a goat and a llama, and I'm counting on our dear readers to finish off one of the two. C'mon people! Everyone needs a llama or goat! We can make this happen. Do it for the kids (that's a pun, y'all)!

Help us buy a llama!

All images and graphics in this post are copyright of Heifer International, of course.