[Avodah] tzedakah collector

[Brent Kaufman]

> What is the best practice if you?ve started the amida and a tzedakah
> collector comes in front of you to collect?

What are the options here? Launch into a fire and brimstone mussar shmooz?
Scrunch your face and lift your fist up and say, "Why you, I oughta..."?
Clear your throat so that he learns the error of his ways? If one must
not be distracted by a snake or a king, what is the hava amina that a
tzedaka collector is the exception?

It seems that the purpose of tefila is to connect with HKBH, so wouldn't
the response be to close your eyes, slow down your pulse (which I can
only assume, based on personal experience, is starting to race) and
transcend any annoyance with rachamim for socially awkward people.

Chaimbaruch Kaufman