צֶדֶק

 tzedakah (righteousness)

Tzedakah is the active intervention into societal affairs to rehabilitate society.  Tzedakah is also about having an inner integrity that is expressed through outward and public action.  Your word is your deed.  Your name is righteous.  

Interrupting the status quo and working toward transformation can be long and hard.  Nobody likes to enter into that much conflict.  Righteousness says that if interruption, transformation, and conflict need to happen to rehabilitate society, then bring it on!  

No hurdles are too high, no stumbling blocks are too many which will keep us off the walk, the march, the vigil, or the path.  If one says, "I value this!" and then blinks or gives up when things get tough, that person betrays themselves as less than righteous.  

Righteousness is not charity from above, a one-time thing, but an assertion of dignity and worth that is contrary to the Domination System.  And that assertion is a regular, consistent, and persistent practice.