[Avodah] Tzadakah

[Yitzchok Levine]

As often happens here in glorious Flatbush on a 
Friday afternoon, the bell just rang. When I 
asked, "Who is there?" the reply was, as usual, "Tzadakah."

I went to the door and gave the fellow standing 
there a dollar.  This is what I normally do, 
given that there so many collectors appear at our door.

In shul I and others davening with me are 
approached daily by collectors. Indeed, there are 
some who apparently have a route, and therefore 
they come at regularly on certain days. If I 
daven at another shul on a different day, I often 
see the same collector to whom I gave earlier in the week.

I am not sure if I am doing the "right" thing 
when it comes to those collecting in shul or who 
come to my door. Should I really be giving them? 
Are they worthy of receiving funds that I could 
earmark for other causes? Am I giving enough? Am I giving too much?

Below is a selection from Chapter 9  "Beggars and 
Charity" of the translation of Rabbi Moshe 
Weinberger's 1887 book. Rabbi Weinberger was a 
colorful rabbinic and lay figure who left his 
native Hungary and arrived in New York City in 
1880.  A disciple of the distinguished Hungarian 
talmudists Rabbis Meir Perles, Samuel Ehrenfeld, 
Moses Sofer (d. 1917; not to be confused with the 
Chasam Sofer), and Eleazar Loew,  he ultimately 
entered the rabbinate,  serving as rabbi of 
Congregation Bnai Israel Anshei Ungarn in 
Scranton, Congregation Ohev Shalom in 
Philadelphia,  and Congregation Beis Medrash 
ha-Gadol Anshei Ungarn in New York. Unimpressed 
by what he saw here, he published his classic 
work,  ha-Yehudim veha-Yahadus be-New York (New 
York. 1887).'Written in rabbinic Hebrew. it was 
intended primarily for European Jews considering 
emigration to America. Its message was clear and 
blunt: "Stay home." (From Tradition 25 (2) 1990, 
"YESHIVAT OR HA-HAYYIM: THE FIRST TALMUDICAL 
ACADEMY IN AMERICA? by Shnayer Z. Leiman)

Please note the part that I have put in bold.

Would that all idlers came to realize that 
begging in America is a worthless enterprise. 
Would that they all returned home en masse in a 
boat, leaving just the truly impoverished and 
unfortunate, who really cannot work. Then Jewish 
money would no longer flow to those who, by 
taking money, deprive the truly poor, those who 
previously—until these men came and snatched the 
bread out of their mouths—had always been supported.

This charity work—to give aid to every wayfarer 
and all who stretch out their hands—provides 
little benefit, and serves no laudable end of the 
sort that all Israel might exalt in (see Author's 
Note C). It rather causes cheaters and idlers to 
multiply. Ultimately the burden falls only on the 
truly poor, who are far more needy.

Note C. We have elsewhere expanded on this point 
and shown from various authors and sources that 
the rabbis considered charity that does not lead 
to any good and laudable end to be mere 
squandering. They placed it at the opposite 
extreme from sustenance, the form of charity that 
God desires. The author of the Sefer Hamidos [The 
Book of Ethical Qualities, also known as The Ways 
of the Righteous (New York, 1969), p. 308] says 
that the squanderer is one who befriends the poor 
actively but not intelligently. What he means is 
that he does not make his contributions sensibly. 
A generous man does no good unless he is 
secretive about his gifts, giving only to the 
upright and honest; not to the hypocritical and wicked.

The gaon [Aryeh Leib Gunzberg], author of the 
Ture Even, says that generosity is an excellent 
attribute in man, requiring him to look at his 
fellows with a compassionate eye in order to find 
those basic needs that he lacks. This can be 
accomplished through deed, speech, and thought. 
Deed involves giving charity with one's own hand 
in the form of money, and physically helping 
those who need assistance. Speech involves 
speaking softly, pleasantly, and comfortingly, 
even if one cannot afford to provide basic needs. 
Thought involves thinking out a way through some 
pleasant means of achieving an end equally 
glorious and praiseworthy both to donor and to 
recipient. For every good deed that is 
accomplished without proper intelligence is 
unwanted by God; He has no desire to accept it.

The Keli Yakar [the commentary of Rabbi Solomon 
Luntschitz] at the end of [the biblical portion] 
Mishpatim [Exodus 23:5] wrote, based on a 
rabbinic homily, that one is required to help out 
only an ox prostrate under burden, not one that 
sat down of its own accord. From this one learns 
that a poor man who stands idle and does not 
support himself through his own labors, whatever 
work he is strong enough to perform, need not be 
given aid. (See also for enjoyment's sake 
Maimonides Commentary on the Ethics of the Fathers, [presumably 4:5],)

In our article, ... which appeared last year, we 
wrote as follows: "Many here believe that all 
influence, righteousness, and charity flows from 
among our enlightened brethren. Their lips utter 
the words `compassion,' `mercy,' 'righteousness,' 
and `pity' only to adorn the heads of innovators 
and reformers. They look upon Orthodox Jews here 
with scorn and contempt, as if to say that the 
Orthodox take no part in works of goodness and 
charity. But in fact such is not the case," as we 
expounded in detail. We concluded with the words 
"now as always the excellent attributes for which 
Jews have continually been praised remain in 
force. But we still complain about the great 
split that divides them, leading to their charity 
being spread to the winds. Theirs are not 
continuing ongoing activities, nor do we find 
among all the goodness and charity that they 
perform a single freestanding concrete project 
that can be seen, boasted about, and called their 
own. Were this not the case, if God would send an 
angel of salvation to bind all the disparate 
factions into a single unit to cooperate for a 
single purpose, then the money now dispersed 
could, without in any way being added to, favor 
all those dear ones who have now no part in it. 
Thousands of sick, unfortunate, and poor wretched folk could be aided."

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