Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Family and Society
- Financial Laws and Tzedaka
- Tzedaka - Charity
Though I have no empirical proof to back up this statement, I am convinced that the ability to be regularly charitable is connected with observance of Jewish ritual and other Torah commandments. My anecdotal experiences buttress this contention of mine. People who need help invariably turn to neighborhoods of religious Jews to find it. The religious Jewish world has constructed a firm and elaborate system of help to those in need. This system includes hundreds of free-loan societies, medical referral help, social and educational welfare programs, wedding sponsorship for indigent families and a host of other services and charitable outreach. Though governmental help can often be found to help these situations as well, the vast majority of all of this charitable help is privately funded and by the general Jewish religious community and not by the wealthy alone. I have seen poor beggars share their meager collections with others whom they somehow deem to be less fortunate than even they are. The Talmud even justifies giving charity to the charlatans and cheats who exploit our generosity by stating: "If it were not for the presence of those whom we suspect to be charlatans we would possess no excuse whatsoever for not truly fulfilling our obligation of giving charity!" The Torah always demands of us that we err on the side of goodness and compassion. We should never regret or feel badly about having given charity or help to others.
In our over-organized society many people never give charity to individuals directly. Charity is given to large organizations that are then charged with its distribution. These organizations are valuable and necessary and most of them are clever and honest and efficient in doing their charitable work. Yet this type of charitable giving is faceless, unemotional and to a great extent impersonal. This type of giving also restricts the number of times a person gives. Maimonides points out that it is better to give five shekel to ten different poor people than to give fifty shekel to one lone person. The amount of charity given remains the same. But in giving ten times, one trains one’s hand to give, so that the muscles of charitable giving will not atrophy over time. The Torah also wished us to have personal contact with the poor and the needy. Halacha not only dictates that we should give charity but also the attitude that we exhibit when so doing. A good word and a smile is also part of the charitable act. People who give charity as a part of a daily routine of their lives find it easier to overcome any feelings of resentment or being exploited and put upon. Thus charitable giving, in order to benefit the giver as much as it does the taker, must be a regular and ongoing feature of one’s life and deeds.
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
