Inspirational Tzedakah Story!

TranquilityAndPeace

Thu, Mar 29 2012, 10:43 am

The Satmar Rebbe had a pile of money on his desk that he would give out to those in need who came to see him.

One day, a man came to the Satmar Rebbe and told him a tale of such woe that it made Iyov (Job) look like he had a life of wonderful parties.

The Rebbe gave him the whole pile of money. Then, the gabbai came into the room and asked the Rebbe, "Where's all the money?"

The Rebbe said that he gave it to that man who had so many tzaros.

The gabbai said, "He's a fraud!"

The Rebbe got up and started dancing, thrilled that no Jew really had such hardships!

If this had happened to me, my initial reaction would be: My gabbai thinks I'm a fool. Everyone who hears about this will think I'm gullible. Did I really fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah? Do I have to give maaser again? How can I catch the guy and get the money back?

Look at the initial reaction of someone great, someone who is not preoccupied with himself and his image and his reward!

In this day and age, tzedakah has become very marketed.

If I give $36 to Oorah, I get the Shmorg DVD.

If I give $xxx to this organization, a gadol hador will stand on his head and whistle to God until I get what I want.

We are losing the point of tzedakah amidst all this marketing -- we give tzedakah and think "what can I get out of it" rather than "I want to help someone in need".

Just some thoughts that inspired me from a shiur I heard today by Rabbi Geisler.

freidasima

Thu, Mar 29 2012, 12:47 pm

May I ask why you think this is inspirational and what you get out of it?
I dont doubt the madrego of the Satmar Rebbe in gadlus hatorah but I don't think that anyone I know would act that way, simply because what might go through their mind is that there are people out there who without a doubt need zedoko money to live. To eat. And now that money all went to a fraud. why? Because I didn't ask enough questions and check out enough. Because I was so emotionally moved that I didn't think of all the other people who might have it even worse than that man and save some of the money to be able to give them. Not anything about getting a DVD or a brocho from this or that rov.

My dh is a tremendous baal zedoko, I ride his coattails. And I have never seen him give to anything that he gets anything tangible back including a promise of a brocho from anyone. He gives to yeshivas, to hospitals, to hungry or destitute individuals, to institutions that lend out equipment, to families tha the knows are in dire straits. None of these are organizations or institutions that promise us anything but the zechus of having given zedoko, maybe it is different abroad but here in EY at least the zedokos I know never offer anything except for a few I hear advertised on Radio kol Hai and we aren't giving to those as far as I know.

In short, while again, I am sure that the Satmar Rebbe had his reasons for doing what he did, and had his reasons for reacting how he did. I'm afraid - at least for me - to try and learn anything from it because I am NOT a godol. I am not even a ketana. In that realm I am nothing and I have to go by my sechel and my senses and my teaachers. And my teachers would have said to me, if you feel that you have to give to everyone, give, but not everything because there are so many that need and you can't do the cheshbonos of the Ribono Shel Olam that there is a reason for everything including why one gives everything to one person who turns out to be a fraud.

I go by the rebbe who said "be smart, be good" - heye chochom, heye tov. First be smart, use your sechel. Only then be good. Because if one is good without using one's sechel one can end up being a fool and doing the wrong thing. That is sometimes why going by the gut isn't the smartest thing in the world, as the Nobel prize winner Kahanaman has recently written in ciriticism of Malcolm Gladwell's theories of "Blink".

TranquilityAndPeace

Thu, Mar 29 2012, 1:06 pm

FS, you are still giving tzedakah the old fashioned way! Good for you:)

Many of the younger generation seek to see where they'll get the 'most bang for their buck' when they give out their maaser money because they are surrounded by pamphlets promising yeshuoas and colorful chinese auction booklets all the time!

I was inspired, because my first reaction would have been "how can I catch the guy and get the money back so I can give it to legitimately poor people"!

freidasima

Thu, Mar 29 2012, 1:16 pm

Which would have been my first reaction as well, to be sure!

I think that we have to really be careful what we learn from Gedolim. Again, I do not judge them, they are just that. Gedolim. They work on a different madrego than the rest of us. They possibly know things and understand things that we cant dream of knowing and understanding.

But we are us and they are them (is that correct English? sounds to me like the joke about toys are us being "we be toys".)

And that's why I'm afraid to learn certain behaviors from gedolim because we can really mess up if we try to emulate them as we do NOT know what they know and who knows whether under other circumstances and with a different person being the fraud and whatever the Satmar Rov would have acted differently. And we, if we copy, are so small that we copy across the board and don't know that there are circumstances that we would have to act differently as our Godol would have also acted differently.

Yes these chinese auctions that I hear about on Imamother, I've never heard of them here in EY although I assume that they exist...here most zedoko is indeed the old fashioned way.

May we continue to be the ones to give zedoko and not be the ones who have to receive it. May we have compassion for those who need to receive it and may the ribono shel olam help us to always do the right thing!