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The two key terms are Tzedakah (tzedek- justice) and mishpat (judgement). The word mishpat means the judgment given by the shofet (judge); hence the word can mean justice, norm, ordinance, legal right, law. The word tzedakah may be rendered by "righteousness." While legality and righteousness are not identical, they must always coincide, the second being reflected in the first.
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In the days of the historic civil rights struggle, it seemed so easy to make a clear moral judgment on the big issues in American society. It seemed so easy to tell the good guys from the bad, to stand up and be counted. It did not require great ethical sophistication to distinguish right from wrong when witnessing black children in Birmingham being killed in church bombings and assaulted by police equipped with attack dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods.
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Our tradition, therefore, has not dictated specific answers but rather provided values to be applied to life. Judaism does not mandate for the nations of the world either monarchy or democracy, socialism or capitalism; nor has it endorsed food stamp programs or supply-side economics. These are human inventions and policies. Our role as Jews is to test these human theories and policies to see if they advance or impede the universal moral values of Judaism.
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The practices and theories of Jewish philanthropy that evolved in the second century C.E. anticipated many of the most advanced concepts of modern social work. Every Jewish community had four basic funds. The first was called the kuppah (“box”) and served only the local poor. The indigent were given funds to supply their needs for an entire week. The second fund was called tamchui (“bowl”) and consisted of a daily distribution of food to both itinerants and residents.
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1. Why did Rabbi Samson dress in disguise? How was this a test of Rabbi Ezekiel? Once Rabbi Samson of Shepetivka, went to see Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, the great sage and chief rabbi of Prague, to discuss matters of scholarship. The two rabbis had never met before. Rabbi Samson approached Rabbi Ezekiel in disguise, dressed as a beggar, asking for alms. Rabbi Ezekiel, who was a very busy man, treated Rabbi Samson very rudely, whereupon Rabbi Samson said, “How can you, a sage and a religious leader, treat a poor person in this fashion? You should rise at my presence, and you should respond to my needs, for God’s Presence stands at my side.
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It is not enough to say that Judaism views women as separate but equal, nor to point to Judaism's past superiority over other cultures in its treatment of women. We've had enough of apologetics: enough of Bruria, Dvorah, and Esther; enough of Eshet Chayyil (woman of valor)!
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To be successful, a woman has to be better at her job than a man.
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A leader who doesn't hesitate before sending their nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
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Shifra and Puah were originally Egyptians who embraced Judaism. Otherwise how could Pharoah have ordered them to kill Jews? How could they in the first place have agreed? Surely every Jew is obliged to sacrifice his life rather than commit idolatry, incest or murder! That is why the text observes: "The midwives feared God"- implying that previously when they were still heathens they had not feared Him. Had they not been Egyptians what would have been the point of telling us that they feared God. Surely as Jewesses that was taken for granted.
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What is clear is that values can clash. Values may easily clash within the breast of a single individual. And it does not follow that some must be true and others false...The notion of the perfect whole, the ultimate solution in which all good things coexist seems to me not merely unobtainable- that is a truism- but conceptually incoherent. Some along the great goods cannot live together. That is a conceptual truth. We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss. 
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