[Avodah] the 5th purim mitzva

[Newman,Saul Z]

it seems very prevalent that in today's time , there is now an apparant 5th
mitzva, being tzedaka for every mossad one can think of. i dont remember
growing up purim being a day for collecting for yeshivahs, hatzala, etc  it
WAS a mitzva to give for matanot leaniyim, a bo-bayom mitzva, geared for
providing for the aniyim's need for the day.
i wonder was it always a general every-tzedaka-under-the-sun day, or did
this just become something for shtik-oriented teenagers to do to while away
the time. maybe it just took longer for the practice to get to the west.
am i wrong?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20070301/52ab1f9d/attachment-0001.htm>