Audio Shiur: Parshat Kedoshim - Peah and our Perspective on Poverty

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Kedoshim - Peah and our Perspective on Poverty

While the basics of Peah seem, at first glance, straightforward, a more careful analysis not only of the text, but of the mitzvah itself and many of the Mishnayot in Peah, reveals a fascinating worldview on how we relate to the poor, to poverty itself, and to giving to others. While we might think that leaving Peah is similar to Tzedakah, it's different in many important ways.

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Is the Torah Really for Terror Victims?

It's a pretty reliable phenomenon. As soon as the rockets start flying, emails begin flooding our mail asking for donations. Sometimes the emails are relevant, like the OU email asking for donations to help flood victims. But sometimes they seem at best only tangentially related to crisis itself.
For example, this morning I received an email titled, "Please help write a Sefer Torah," which stated that,
With the missiles falling in the South, over 1 million of our brethren have come under this blanket of terror. Please join with me in a project that was started before the current 'rain' of terror, but is dedicated to Victims of Terror.
I really wanted to be fair about the email and appeal, which bothered me - and still does, so I sent a letter to the originator of the email, (Hillel Levin - hillel at israelchesed dot com) that said:

Dear Hillel,
I'm really sorry, but is this really the time to be raising money for a Sefer Torah? If people want to send money, perhaps they can do so to alleviate the suffering of the people in Sderot, the families of those killed in Kiryat Malachi, or the many other causes actually related to the rockets themselves. Where is this Sefer Torah even going to be housed? How is it helpful, other than in some kind of pseudo-mystical way that no one can really understand?
I could even accept sponsoring additional learning of some kind during this challenging time.
This really smacks of tzedaka opportunism, and leaves me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I was going to post this on my blog, but felt that you should have the opportunity to respond. If you want to raise money for chesed, that's great! But use it for chesed.
Best,
Reuven Spolter

I'm sharing his prompt answer with you in full with his permission:

Dear Rabbi Spolter,
I appreciate your questions and the opportunity to respond.
First, I think that you should know that I made Aliyah 6 years ago and spent 4 of those years working for an amuta which connected Jews all over the world to both Chayalim and to families/children in Sderot. So I am sensitive to the needs of those groups.
The motivation behind this particular Sefer Torah is to honor the neshamot of terrorist victims. It was started about 3 months ago by an amuta: Ahavat Chinam, which provides services: education, dormitory, counseling etc to girls at risk and girls coming back from relationships with arabs, drugs, lack of observance etc. These problems exist before, during and after the current escalation of this 64 year ongoing war with the world around us.
While the project was started 3 months ago, the efforts have only resulted in a handful of complete Parshaot being sponsored. I was asked to assist in the effort 2 weeks ago.
Timing is such, but one can sponsor a psuk in the merit of our chayalim.
This is a time for us to do t’shuva, t’filla and tzedakah. Out right, this is a tzedakah opportunity, they have received p’sak that funds for this Sefer Torah can come from one’s Ma’aser Funds. In addition, since part of the funds will go to the amuta to assist these girls in their personal t’suva process and one of the things that these girls do is t’filla, supporting the writing of this Sefer Torah is a means to support all 3 things that we need to do every day, but especially during this particular Matzav.
One of the things that I have seen some Rabbis say is that we need to continue life as much to normal as we can as a means to show HKBH that we have emmunah and bitachon in Him and our enemy so that he sees that we trust in HKBH.
I know that Yad Binyamin is a lot closer to the missiles then Shiloh is, but travel to Shiloh has always been under attack and while, not missiles, the rocks and boulders that are thrown and the fire bombs that are tossed have increased in frequency on the roads to and from Jerusalem.
At the same time that we here in Israel are under rocket assault, our brethren in the Eastern US are pumping and digging out of Storm Sandy. So they also have a tremendous need for funds, even if only for a temporary fix as they all pack up and make Aliyah. Is it insensitive to ask them for help in writing this Sefer Torah? They need a connection with HKBH also. They lack both the walking, breathing and living in Eretz Yisroel as a z’scut as well as being outside of HKBH umbrella of protection, where He neither slumbers nor sleeps.
This particular Sefer Torah will be housed at the Kotel, the center of the world and the place that the survivors of Terror turn in their prayers. It is also a global fund raising effort, so for both these reasons, I believe that this is an appropriate location for this Sefer Torah.
Rabbi Spolter, we are not a lot of money for participation in this Sefer Torah only US$ 18 or 72 NIS, so one can participate in this project and other chesed projects as well.
One of my correspondents, on Moshav Shokeda, which is a lot closer to Aza then Yad Binyamin has asked for assistance to purchase a migunit-shelter which runs 70-80,000 NIS. Here is another opportunity to do Chesed: how much can you and your ‘community’ (local and on-line) raise for this project?
If you are going to post to your blog, please share this.
Hillel Levin

Of course it's nice to sponsor a sefer torah. But, first of all, does the Kotel really need more Sifrei Torah? More importantly, the money really isn't for the Torah. Rather, it's to raise money for an organization doing other wonderful work - but the Sefer Torah is the means, not the end. Why not just ask for money for the organization? Probably because that hasn't worked so well. Finally, while the charity is wonderful, it really has very little to do with the current situation. The money raised goes to help girls at risk - an important cause, but one that has no connection whatsoever to terror victims. Intimating that it does seems questionable, at best.
Perhaps I'm over-reacting, but I don't think so.

Now Selling Indulgences...er, Blessings, for just $180!

Got this in an email from the Belzer Chassidim. It seems that they're now overtly selling indulgences - sorry - kvitlach - via the internet. The sad part is, they really do great Chessed work in Israel. It's a shame when they have to resort to such sad tactics.
My favorite part of the picture: the blatant bastardization of the passuk, which in the real Torah reads - העשיר לא ירבה והדל לא ימעית - "the rich may not add and the poor may not subtract." It seems in Belz they have no problem with the rich adding, as long as the poor guy pays his $180 for his kvittel too!

My Last-Minute Gift Giving Guide. Of a Different Kind.

Yes, I know that I'm late for the "gift giving" season. But this guide is for a different sort of gift. It's not the kind of guide where you give presents to your loved ones. Rather, this guide is for people who want to give to people that they don't know and never heard of. That's right - it's my First Ever, Annual, End-of-(Secular)-Year, Tzedakah Guide.
For those of you living in the United States (and Israel), we're at the tail end of the tax year, meaning that you might want to give some tzedakah and enjoy the last minute benefits of the corresponding deduction. And, according to this article in the Washington Post, you won't be alone. Plus, I received the following email from a friend, who wrote me:

I’m doing end of year accounting, and I while most of my tzedaka is local, I like to give something to aniyei eretz Yisrael. I somehow went an entire year without any personalized requests from people I trust. (I put solicitations from organizations I know nothing about directly into recycling – I’m so very eco-conscious that way.) Any suggestions? Oh, I do have two requirements:
1. I don’t like giving to organizations that hate me / my hashkafa / think I’m a goy but will accept my money anyway. I’m perfectly fine letting insular communities be completely self-supporting.
2. I don’t like giving to organizations that encourage dependency. If your hashkafa is to be poor and starving, that’s fine. I never considered the deprived monastic life a major part of my religion, but if that’s your religion I certainly don’t want to disrupt your way of life by pumping money into it.

So, I'm sharing my answers with you, in the hopes that you too will dig deep and help support a worthy Eretz Yisrael cause. Caveat: I work at the Orot College of Education, which I support wholeheartedly, and strongly recommend donating tzedakah towards our scholarship fund, which helps young women complete their education. If you're interested, email me here. That being said, here are some Israeli tzedakah options fitting the above criteria that I recommend wholeheartedly (all allow online donations):

1. Leket Israel: At its core, Leket Israel reclaims food that would otherwise have gone to waste, from restaurants to grocery stores to entire fields, and uses that food to feed the hungry.
2. Jobkatif: Created originally to assist the former residents of Gush Katif and help them find new jobs (and often new careers), JobKatif is a grassroots organization that has helped change literally thousands of lives in Israel for the better.
3. Pa'amonim: This organization, instead of simply giving poor people money, trains volunteers to help people who have jobs but have fallen into debt get a handle on their finances, so that they can get on track on their own, and don't need charity.
4. Hazon Yeshaya: It's a soup kitchen. They give hungry people food.
That's enough for one year. If you've got money left over, email me. I'll be happy to make other suggestions.

With blessings for a very blessed, profitable new (secular) year, in which you'll need to make many tax-deductible donations!

Changing Tzedakah Priorities

I was recently invited to attend a program by Yeshivat Sha'alvim - the Hesder yeshiva which I attended during the years after high school. My years in Sha'alvim represented a formative time in my life, educationally, personally and intellectually. I met some of the most intelligent, passionate people I have ever known. I learned about unapologetic religious Zionism first-hand (something that simply doesn't exist in America, where Zionists must struggle between the pull of their ideology and their residence in the Diapsora), and my Hebrew skills improved exponentially, spending much of my day immersed in a predominantly Hebrew and Israeli culture.
I'm probably going to attend the event. But I'm beginning to wonder about a shift in my tzedakah priorities: on one hand, we give looking back to the institutions that made us who we are. But we also give looking forward, trying to anticipate communal and family needs. My high school was great. But I no longer live in Silver Spring, Md. Or America. And the Yeshiva of Greater Washington now serves a new generation of students and families. So I don't give to them anymore - not because it's not a good school, but because it's time for the current YGW community to take up the burden of support.
This brings me to wonder: Do graduates support institutions because of what they received, or because they want the institution to give others what they received as well. Do I still continue to give to my old yeshiva, or turn to new priorities that will have a greater impact on my new home, and my childrens' future?

A Society of Schnorrers - Tzedakah Part 2

Second in a series. (Part one here)

A moment ago, I heard a soft knock on the door - literally. You can pretty much tell who's at the door by the way that they knock. I opened the door to find two yeshiva bachurim collecting money for their yeshiva (one which I've never heard of and actually don't even remember the name of anymore). They had a sheepish look on their face - the one that says that they'd rather be anywhere else but asking me for money - and yet there they were, telling me that they're from "Yeshivat something something in Yerushalayim", collecting for a fund for "kollel families and needy students."
I smiled, and calmly explained to them that I prefer to focus my donations on the local yeshivot that we have here in the area. It's not a copout. I actually did write a check to a local yeshiva this week.
I'm sure this experience is not unique to me. If you're reading this blog, there's a strong chance that you've heard the same knock on your door, multiple times, to find young men standing there asking for money for their yeshivot. I'm not even sure how this custom developed, but it seems to have grown exponentially in recent years, with yeshivot sending their students out during the weeks before and after Purim collecting.
On one hand, yeshivot need money. They can't survive without donations, and running a yeshiva is really expensive. But this new phenomenon, of bachurim collecting for the yeshiva, bothers me for a very simple reason: we're training an entire generation of schnorrers.
Yesterday in shul, not one but two people asked for money at the end of davening. The first was a young man who said that he came from a large family (of 13 children), and that the family simply could not provide sufficient funds for his upcoming wedding. So he came collecting. I wondered: if he had an upcoming wedding and needed to pay for expenses to build his home, who gave him the right to sit in yeshiva and ask me to pay for his household? Why didn't he first assume that he should go out, get a job, do his best, and then ask me for help with his shortfall (which I would have been more open to)?
By sending our students out collecting for their yeshivot (and by extension, for themselves), we're training them to ask other people for money. We're giving them a head start on overcoming what should be a natural aversion to asking other people for help. We're teaching them that the best way to support yourself is to ask someone else to pay your way. And while these boys might very well be learning a lot of Torah in their yeshiva, this might be the most practical aspect of their education.
In the third brachah of Bircat Hamazon, we ask God for the following:

ונא אל תצריכינו, ה' אלקינו, לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם, ולא לידי הלואתם, כי אם לידך המלאה הפתוחה הקדושה והרחוה, שלא נבוש ולא נכלם לעולם ועד.

And please do not make us require, Hashem our God, neither the gifts of the hands of flesh and blood (other people), nor their loans; rather [supply us with the bounty of] Your full, open, holy, benevolent Hand - so that we never feel neither shamed nor debased.

Where is the obvious sense of shame and debasement that's so basic to human nature that it's part of the birkat hamazon?
I guess with enough practice you can get used to anything.

A Society of Tzedakah and the Kli Yakkar

First in a Series

A rather common occurrence took place in shul this morning. Again.
At the end of davening (sometimes it starts before we're even done), a man dressed mostly in black, clearly not from our yishuv, made the rounds asking for a donation. He held in his hand a pamphlet asking for fund for a family of orphans.
I have stopped giving money to people like this for a very simple reason: I have no way of verifying that they're telling me the truth. This man carried no identification indicating that he represented the given charity. He offered no evidence that the money people give him actually goes to the charity for which he claims to collect.
So I didn't give. Even a small amount.
This is not to say that I don't give tzedakah. I am making a concerted effort to be meticulous about my ma'aser. But I write checks to organizations that I recognize and support. I don't give to people collecting in shuls, the kotel, or on the street. When people come to my door, if they're collecting for themselves I will often give a token amount (I don't feel comfortable asking for documentation for a shekel or two.)
Often, when people come to my door asking for money for a kallah, a wedding or the like, a simple question enters my mind: do you work? How much? If you did, would you need to be asking me for this money?
It sometimes seems like large segments of our society have grown accustomed to "working" in the field of tzedakah. It's simply more lucrative to collect than it is to work. If each door you know on only gives you a shekel or two, you can easily make fifty to a hundred shekel in an hour. Cleaning houses earns forty. Knocking on doors is easier - at least physically, and less demanding.
This clearly isn't just a modern problem. Charlatans have been taking advantage of people's good will and generosity for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Should we happen upon the donkey of our fellow man toppling under its heavy load, the Torah requires that, עזוב תעזוב עמו-- "you shall surely help with him." (Shemot 23:5) Commenting on the requirement to help "with" him, and not "instead" of him, Rav Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, in his commentary Kli Yakar on the Torah writes,

לומר לך דוקא שרוצה להיות עמך במלאכתו ורוצה להקים עמך אז אתה מחויב לסייע לו אבל אם יושב לו ואומר הואיל ועליך מוטל הדבר חייב אתה להקים לבד, על כן אמר וחדלת מעזוב לו...ומכאן תשובה על מקצת עניים בני עמינו המטילים את עצמם על הציבור ואינן רוצים לעשות בשום מלאכה אף אם בידם לעשות באיזו מלאכה או איזה דבר אחר אשר בו יכולין להביא שבר רעבון ביתם, וקוראים תגר אם אין נותנים להם די מחסורם, כי דבר זה לא צוה ה' כי אם עזוב תעזוב עמו הקם תקים עמו כי העני יעשה כל אשר ימצא בכוחו לעשות ואם בכל זה לא תשיג ידו, אז חייב כל איש מישראל לסעדו ולחזקו וליתן לו די מחסורו אשר יחסר לו, ועזוב תעזוב אפילו עד מאה פעמים

This teachs you that specifically he who wishes to be "with you" in his work, and wants to raise the donkey with you - then you are obligated to help him. But if he sits to himself and says, "Since the burden is placed upon you, you alone are obligated to raise [the donkey]", for this the verse teaches us, "you shall hold back from helping him"...And from here we derive a response to the some of the paupers among our nation, who place themselves upon the community, and do not wish to engage in any form of work, even if they are able to perform some work or find some other means to bring sustenance to their homes; and they cry foul if they are not given sufficient means. This is not what God commanded. Rather, only if, "You help with him and raise up [the donkey] with him", should the pauper do everything in his power, and despite these efforts, it is not enough, then every person from Israel must feed him, strengthen him, and give him what he lacks, and must "help him" even a hundred times.

Sometimes it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.