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TZEDAKAH: HOW SMALL CHANGE CAN MAKE A BIG CHANGE
During my early days in Israel, a roommate and I were approached by a poor man as we were strolling down Meah Shearim Streetin Jerusalem. The man stuck out a cup, which contained a few coins, and said, “Shabbos Koidesh.” He meant that he was collecting funds to purchase Shabbat food for himself and his family. I handed the fellow a shekel as my friend searched his pockets. All he could come up with, though, was a ten-agurot coin which he promptly dropped into the cup. But before we could move on, the man said, “Wait a minute!” and placed 50 agurot in the hand of my friend. “It looks like you need the money more than me, he explained.” Without further ado, he turned and walked away, leaving us in a mild state of shock.
Before offering a Torah perspective on responding to an outstretched arm and open palm (or cup), permit me to share several additional encounters with poor beggars in Israel. I will never forget a gentleman in his late sixties who would circulate in the study hall of the Mir Yeshiva in a black baseball cap with the word SHVIGGER (mother-in-law) embossed in large gold letters. Then there was the fellow who came around the yeshivah with a sign over his chest proclaiming in English – a language which he apparently did not understand – that he is “deaf, dead, and dumb.” I myself could only testify to his being deaf and dumb. A third fellow tells you jokes, and a fourth first tries to convince you to take a 250-shekel massage (as he shows you his degree), and then asks if you can at least spare a shekel to help him pay his psychologist.
At one point, I started to ignore these people because of the nuisance they frequently caused. Each encounter involved having to stop learning to search for a coin. But I began feeling uneasy about this approach, especially regarding those people who came around every week. After all, they were really only asking for half a shekel. Furthermore, I kept thinking of the classical image of one Jew putting a coin into the pushke at the end of the outstretched arm of a fellow Jew. Even worse, I knew that there is a Torah prohibition concerning not giving anything at all: לא תוכל להתעלם (דברים כ”ב:א-ג).
An insight in this week’s parashah helped me rectify my actions and, ultimately, my perspective. The Torah tells us: Give to him, and let not your heart turn evil…– נתן תתן לו ולא ירע לבבך בתתך לו (דברים טו – י) . The Kli Chemdah points to the doubling of the verb Give in the verse (נתן תתן), and explains it to mean that if one has trouble giving, he should give a little to the first one who asks, and another small amount to the next poor person… Eventually, he will be able to change his habit and give more generously. Indeed, this approach can help us become more generous and compassionate in other life areas as well.
Besides the benefit of “small change” ultimately leading to big change, there are other significant benefits hidden in the mitzvah of tzedakah. For one thing, the poor man gives the giver a change in perspective. The Torah tells us that there will always be poor people in the world. Why? Rabbeinu Bachye answers that a world with only rich people in it would fall apart economically: If an individual needed something from someone else, no-one would ever feel a need to sell, and the result would be that money would lose its value. Therefore, there must always be poor people. (Chovat HaLevavot, Shaar HaBechinah, Ch.5).
On the surface, this is a bit perplexing. Rabbeinu Bachye seems to be saying that the poor must suffer their entire life to facilitate a healthy economy for the rich. Indeed we find a similarly perplexing statement in the Talmud concerning poverty: Rabbi Akiva said that although G-d loves the poor, He allows them to suffer from poverty so that the rich should be saved from Hell when giving charity. (Bava Batra 10a) How can G-d allow the poor to live a life of suffering just to save the rich from suffering in the next world? Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler zt”l explains that we do not appreciate just how great the merit of benefiting another human being actually is – and the poor person receives this merit!
It is told that when a poor man would knock on the door of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer zt’’l, he would jump up and run to get some money so that the poor man would not need to waste an unnecessary second. His students offered to do the mitzvah for the Gadol HaDor, or at least open the door and let the poor person in. Rabbi Isser Zalman declined, however, explaining that he owes a tremendous debt to the poor. In light of the fact that the existence of poor people is a Heavenly decree, he commented: “If not for this person being poor, then I might have to take his place. He is doing me a favor by filling that position in my stead.” (See Devarim 15:11.)
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When we meet a poor person, we sometimes hear a voice inside us saying: “Why doesn’t he go to work and make money?!” or, “Surely, there are better causes than this…” Before listening to this voice, we would do much better to learn the laws of Tzedakah in detail and learn (or re-learn) all that Chazal have written about this mitzvah. It saves us from death, evil decrees, poverty, and Gehinom; and it brings us salvation, makes us better people, and unites us. And, as the prophet Yeshaya declared, Jerusalem will be rebuilt through charity (ישעיה א’,כז’).
Besides, it often only costs a shekel!
REMEMBERING OUR MORTALITY:
AN EFFECTIVE “SELF HELP” TECHNIQUE
One of my rabbis recently flew to theUnited Statesto visit a student. While in town, the rabbi was asked to give a Torah class at the office of the student’s father – a very hard-working, rich man who spends untold hours behind a big desk in a fancy office. Towards the end of the class, this busy man took out a bucket from under his big mahogany desk and put it on the table. He asked the rabbi to take a look inside. The bucket was full of dirt! The man turned to the rabbi and explained that whenever he feels good about making a great business deal, he picks up this bucket and says to himself: One day I will be buried with this bucket of dirt covering my body. It can happen any day, and when it does, I will leave all the cash behind.
After relating this story, my rabbi looked at me and commented: “I was shocked! I would never imagine a man in his position doing such a thing. Most people are afraid of death, and try to avoid the subject. This man actually felt happy reminding himself that one day it will all be over” because a reminder of death can actually give one the right mindset for life. The Ben Ish Chai finds this same concept hinted at in our parashah: (ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה (יא:כז – “See that I put before you today…” In other words, perceive and focus on the today that I am giving you. In order to deal with life from a proper perspective, we must stop and ask ourselves: “How would I conduct myself if today were to be my very last day.” This can give us the strength to deal with hardships and overcome them. This can also help us to not waste time on mundane things that are ultimately of very little importance.
The Ben Ish Chai’s insight is particularly relevant to those of us who are living a life of plenty. The yetzer ha’ra (Evil Inclination) tries to take advantage of this, and entices us to feel very proud of ourselves – to the point of haughtiness. The yetzer ha’ra knows that haughtiness can easily lead to the abandonment of G-d and His commandments. The best way to overcome this is by imagining that there is no more than “today” – that tomorrow is non-existent. By tomorrow, our soul might have left all our worldly possessions behind. As the Midrash puts it, when a baby arrives in this world, his fists are clenched. When he leaves the world, however, his palms are open (קהלת רבה ה,ב). What this means, symbolically, is that we all come into the world trying to grab whatever we can get our hands on; but when we die, we leave with nothing.
The same insight of the Ben Ish Chai can also help us in times of financial hardships. In fact, it dovetails with the teaching of our Sages in the Talmud: “Do not fret over tomorrow’s worries because you do not know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe you will not even have a tomorrow; and by fretting over it, you may be fretting over a world that is not yours” –
(סנהדרין ק:) אל תצר צרת מחר כי לא תדע מה ילד יום שמא למחר איננו ונמצא מצטער על עולם שאינו שלו
Why is it, by the way, that we are inclined to forget that death is inevitable, and that it can happen to any one of us at any moment?
The Chofetz Chaim explains that – at least emotionally – most people tend to feel that there is a society of people who die. It is made up of the elderly, the sick, and the unlucky. They belong to this select group who die, of which I am not a member. So while I may be aware of death, it doesn’t apply to me. This mistaken perspective on death spawns a mistaken perspective on life. To counter this, the businessman described above came up with a unique method to internalize death emotionally, on a daily basis, and put life’s worries and challenges in the right perspective.
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Learning from the Dead
Another way for us to keep our priorities straight is to consider the meaning of a well-known halachah pertaining to the Jewish cemetery. A man is forbidden to walk in the cemetery with his tzitzit strings outside his pants. This is because – on some level – the people buried there perceive that someone near them is fulfilling a mitzvah that they cannot. This is considered a slight. The Sages call it לועג לרש – mocking the dead. Note that although a few inexpensive tzitzit strings “bother” the dead, they are not in the least bit bothered if a visitor pulls right up to the grave in the latest Infiniti SUV, wearing a Canali suit, a Cartier watch, and talking on his Blackberry. Just thinking of this halachah can help us put things in proper perspective!
