[Avodah] Torah Institutions = Tzeddakah?

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> :                                                              The core
> : requirement of 1/3 shekel per annum -- that, AFAIK, must be spent on
> : actual tzedaka in its strictest definition.
> 
> See the AhS YD 251:5, which says that someone who has food for his own
> table isn't allowed to rely on this minimum. And someone who has
> sufficient money "vaday dechayav bitzdaqah maaser or chomesh". Efshar
> lomar he too held it was lehalakhah, not just minhag.

1. If it were really lehalacha then it wouldn't depend on the person's
circumstances.  Rich or poor, if maaser is a core halachic obligation
like shabbos or kashrus then he must give it.  If necessary the kupas
tzedaka must give him enough that he can give maaser back to it, just
as it must give him enough for arba kosos, tefillin, etc.  The fact
that he only requires it of someone who can afford it shows that it
isn't really a law, just a very strong minhag.

2. Note that he says "...o chomesh".  Now AFAIK nobody claims that
chomesh is an actual halachic requirement, even of the richest Jew.
I don't think it's possible to call one who can afford it and doesn't
a law-breaker, or to compare him, say, to one who doesn't hear the
megillah or light shabbos candles.  I can't believe that's what the
AhS means.  So when he says "chayav" here he's not talking literally
-- just as when we say the maaser/chomesh must go to "tzedaka" we're
not talking literally.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas