To Whom Do We Give Tzedakah and Who Comes Before Whom?
Aseres Yemei Teshhuva between Rosh hashana and yom kippur when many tzedaka requests are made by Mosdos, Yeshivos individuals and organizations asking for donations as klal yisrael is in a giving mode of tzedaka during this time. we are bombarded by Tzedaka letters in the mail, robo calls, telemarketers soliciting donations, emails, a meshulach knocking at your door or approaching you in shul. Some have family obligations to support a relative.
If one can afford to give to all that would be wonderful, however not everyone is capable of that. The question is is whom do I have to give
According to Halacha there are priorities in who to give tzedaka to first. Please discuss this with your Local Rabbi as there are differences of opinions.
Some Poskim rule that Hachzokas hatorah is the highest form of giving tzedaka. categories in giving based on the shulchan aruch Yore Deah: The Laws of Tzedakah siman 251
Category 1: Captives, prisoners and matters of life and death- pikuach nefesh
Category 2: Very close relatives
Category 3: Needy Torah scholars, support for dissemination of Torah learning, and other poor persons
Category 4: Communal needs
Category 5: To finance the cost of mitzvos
Rav Moshe Feinstein rules (Igros Moshe Yore deah 144) that the giver of charity has the right of disposition and the system of detailed priorities applies only to communal Tzedaka funds. An individual has more leeway on the concept of Tovas hana'ah in giving. Some Poskim rule that Hachzokas hatorah is the highest form of giving tzedaka. see more about the halachos of Tzedaka HERE
Great post. Two more criteria. Category 2 close family according to the CC you are not supposed to give everything to family. Category 3 according to some poskim boarding Torah scholars in your community comes first. Category 4 should not be communal needs but rather needy in the community. Aniyei ircha. Another avenue to explore is if someone gives according to the wrong criteria has he fulfilled his obligation or has he actually went against the torah requirements and it is a transgression since not giving when asked is a lav
ReplyDeleteWhere is the mekor that someone who gives his tzedakah according to the wrong order of priorities can thereby end up violating a lav when he does not give to someone who asks? The fact that there are halachic rules of kedimah (and a general possible lav for not giving someone who asks) does not by itself establish that conclusion.
DeleteAt most, you can claim he was giving a gift and not fulfilling the mitzvah of Tzedoka And even that would need a very solid mekor to claim so. But turning GIVING tzedoka into a possible issur d’Oraisa needs a mekor of its own. Most cases of giving Tzedoka can be argued that some shittas hold you should be giving priority to others. Without a solid mekor you are in essence creating a new safek issur d’Oraisa out of the rules of kedimah every time someone gives tzedoka, which raises its own bal tosif question…
You're absolutely correct but you're assuming that there is a limitless amount of funds which every person can give. Reality is, it's a zero sum game. If you give you don't give there . And at that point you can be over a lav. Unless you can claim that despite the fact that you gave to the wrong person you are now a oness
DeleteI'm totally lost here at where the lav is coming from. You should be more worried about the lav of not giving when you were first asked (even if for elsewhere) then when you have no funds left. This is at most like the classic question of not fasting Tzom Godeliah to fast Yom Kippur when you have limited strength. Although most (not all) poskim hold you do eat Tzom Gedoliah if Tzom Gedoliah were also d'oraysha most would not. By your logic not eating on Tzom Gedaliah is in itself a chiyuvey krisos since it will force the person to eat on Yom Kippur.
DeleteAbsolutely no comparison. Fasting even for TG is required whereas giving money to some place where you are not obligated. And then not having funds for where you are obligated is a problem. And the reality is you are obligated at the same time and before you made the first donation so you actually pushed off giving to where your obligated and spend your money where you were not obligated. It's hard to say that you are obligated to fast YK even on TG
DeleteIn the goes without saying category, the 1st priority is paying up outstanding balances
ReplyDeleteLakewood eitzniks now looking for every heter in the book to ignore halacha when it comes to Keren Olam Hatorah...
ReplyDeleteAs we say here, אכלו את הדייסה
I'm as far you can get from an Eitznick and considered to be a Zionist on hefkervelt (which at least publishes my comments, Matzav censors them out)but I give thousands of dollars a year to Keren Olam HaTorah and more to them than any Lakewood Tzedoka. . We'll put aside the standard halacha questions of Anyiyey Eretz Yisroel vs Aniyey Ircha, and the halacha questions of what to do when the aniyim of another city don't have the resources in their city to go to. As the sefer on Tzedoka based on Rabbi Forcheimer brings down from Rav Moshe Sternbuch when you learned in EY and you send your children to learn there and are frequently hocking your opinions about what should be being done there, you can not regard them as aniyay ihr acheres .
Deletekerem olam hatorah is priority #1 as gedolim support its cause as do our leaders like Louie Scheiner
ReplyDeleteA Brilliant Insight into the Selichos of Erev Yom Kippur- "Mochor Yihiye Ha'os Ha'ze" by Horav Michoel Sorotzkin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8q6v7InRDI&t=154s
ReplyDeleteRav Elyashiv paskened supporting talmiday chachomim is number 1.
ReplyDeleteand how come no one wants to support Lakewood yungerliet only eretz yisroel?
Something is really wrong!
We will do anything for a meshulach or for eretz yisroel, but not help our own brother in Lakewood ????? (Fact)
Torah in America is in Lakewood. and we have to support Torah in America !! Or there won't be Torah in America c"v
No yungerman ever knocked on my door or came to me in shul asking for money like a mesulach from EY. If they would I would give them more than the mesulach from EY..
Delete