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When Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced plans this week to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares during their lifetime, they may not have intended it as an illustration of Jewish values — but that’s exactly what it is.

Let’s unpack the extraordinary gesture here. First, those shares are currently valued at about $45 billion, so we’re talking about the couple divesting themselves of a considerable portion of their personal wealth. Will they be reduced to living “in moderation,” following the dictum of Maimonides? Hardly. But like other mega-rich philanthropists, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, they are publicly eschewing the ’80s aesthetic of opulent living in favor of today’s preferred ethos of putting wealth to good use, an ethos that is in keeping with the Jewish focus on caring for one’s community and the world. 

The Hebrew word tzedakah — often mistranslated as “charity” — actually means “justice.” So giving away money is, from the Jewish perspective, not a matter of inspired largesse but of divinely ordained responsibility to help restore justice in the world.

Keeping that in mind, what are the couple’s stated funding priorities? As expressed in a widely circulated Facebook letter to their newborn daughter, Max, they plan to contribute the money to “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.”

That’s education, healing, and community-building — all fundamental Jewish values (not that Judaism has a monopoly on such values) and all of which, properly understood, contribute to a more equitable world.

They are also the values underlying several of the couple’s previous mega-gifts: $100 million to public schools in Newark, New Jersey in 2010; $500 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in 2012; $120 million to public schools in the Bay Area in 2014, and $25 million toward fighting Ebola in 2014.

Let’s go further. Much of the media reporting on the Zuckerberg-Chan announcement has mistakenly stated that the couple is giving this money to charity. They are not. Rather, the Facebook shares will be deposited into a limited liability company (LLC) called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which will then make private investments to support the foundation’s work. 

Sounds a lot like teaching people to fish, rather than handing them a plate of fried cod. American and Jewish values combined — a powerful force for good.