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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."<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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?<br><br>
Below is a selection from Chapter 9 "Beggars and Charity"
of the translation of Rabbi Moshe Weinberger's 1887 book.
<font size=3>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)<br>
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Please note the part that I have put in bold.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>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],)<br><br>
</b>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."<br><br>
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