Spinoff - Why do you give to a Gemach?

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amother

Cobalt

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 9:23 pm

When you give items to a Gmach - do you do it because its an easy way to clean out the closets/draws? Or do you give with the intention of fulfilling the mitzvah of Gemilut Hasadim?

notshanarishona

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 9:32 pm

Many times it's because I would rather give stuff to be used than throw it out.
If I just wanted to clean I would throw it out.

LittleDucky

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 9:37 pm

I hate waste and throwing out usable items. I like hand-me-downs and think of these as extensions of that idea but just going beyond my immediate social circle. Yes, I like that people who can't afford it can get it cheaply/free but wouldn't my neighbor get it free if I exchanged clothes with her? I got a bag from a friend and passed along what didn't fit me. I hoped the friend who I gave passed it along as well. That's a chessed too.

I have both in mind. Stop waste and give to others. But I love hand me downs- if I like it and it fits I will wear it, regardless of some anonymous "other" who decided what is stylish.

amother

Cobalt

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 10:05 pm

If I give a friend a bag of nice hand-me-downs I don't think of it as 'chesed'. I think of it more as a gift. If I were to give to the same bag to a gmach - then to me its chesed.

On the other hand - if I have a bag of out-of-style clothes that my friends wouldn't want - and I gave that to a gmach - I really wouldn't give myself a mitzvah point for that....

so if a gmach is a repository of old clothes that most people don't want, I'm struggling that its called a gmach at all.

smileyfaces

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 10:08 pm

To get rid of stuff we no longer need and have someone elsebbenefit from it.

I would just throw it in the garbage if the sole purpose was the declutter.
I would never throw out clothes that someone else can benefit from.

zaq

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 10:49 pm

They're not mutually exclusive, but I don't give myself mitzvah points for this. As far as I'm concerned the gmach is doing me a favor. If the KBH wants to give me chessed credits, wonderful, but I won't complain if He doesn't.

Stuff I give to Goodwill is pure decluttering. Goodwill gets what the gmach wont take.

I would never consider hand me downs a gift to the recipients. To my mind they are doing me a favor by taking my excess stuff off my hands. I take bal tashchit very seriously and am distressed if I can't find anyone to take my stuff.

Last edited by zaq on Fri, Feb 10 2017, 7:34 am; edited 1 time in total

33055

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 11:43 pm

It makes me feel less guilty spending money on myself if I can pass along nice things to someone else preferably Jewish.

I rather gift the residual value, if you will, to the community.

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