[Avodah] Tzedakah: Giving to an organization vs. giving privately

[T613K at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/5/2010, doniels at gmail.com writes:

>  People need a combination of mind and heart to inspire them.    I  really
> think that thinking about Adon Olam just won't cut  it.  However,  si
nging Adon
> Olam to a beautiful melody --  just might. [--TK]

Since when do "fuzzy warm" feelings have any weight  in Yiddishkeit?

Having lots of happy frumly-dressed people cannot trump  a handful of
people being meticulous in all areas of Halocho.

No  amount of singing will improve your practical knowledge of  Halocho.

 
>>>>>
 
 
RMB's post was not about halacha but about hashkafa.  If you want to  know 
what your  halachic tzedakah /obligations/ are, you wouldn't determine  that 
by contemplating the words of Adon Olam.
 
I understood RMB to be saying, or at least implying, that he was thinking  
about the general obligation to be "like Hashem" -- mah Hu rachum, af atah  
rachum and so on.  This is not the same kind of "obligation" as the  
requirement to eat a certain amount of matza at the seder.  By its nature  it is 
hashkafic more than halachic, and one aspect of this issue is the question  of 
what will, in fact, induce or motivate a Jew to be more "G-d-like"  or 
"G-dly" in his daily behavior?
 
"Since when do 'fuzzy warm' feelings have any weight in  Yiddishkeit?"


Since Hashem gave us a Torah that is chock full of poetry  comparing the 
relationship between Hashem and Klal Yisrael to the warm and  loving 
relationship  between a chassan and his kallah, or between a  father and his children.
 

--Toby Katz
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