[Avodah] timtum halev

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 05:23:59PM +0200, Eli Turkel wrote:
: Some have held that one gets a reward for good intentions (against the Kuzari)

Izhbitz (including R' Tzadoq) holds one ONLY gets reward for
intentions. After all, whether one's intentions become actions isn't up
to you. I'm not saying I hold of this understanding of bechirah chafshi,
just discussing the "some have held". See also

See RYGB's comment <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol08/v08n044.shtml>
and my <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n012.shtml#14>.

: IMHO one exception would be charity.
: If one gives charity to an imposter who is not poor it would seem that he has
: not accomplished the mitzvah

Why not?

He hasn't improved the world outside him, but he did improve his soul.

The Rambam values 100 nedavos of $1 over one nedavah of $100. And the
nosein gets more than the meqabeil. And R' Aqiva taught Turnus Rufus
that Hashem made poor people for the sake of our giving tzedaqah.

I could build an argument that the iqar is the act of giving, not the
gift.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I have great faith in optimism as a philosophy,
micha at aishdas.org        if only because it offers us the opportunity of
http://www.aishdas.org   self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Arthur C. Clarke