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Forum
-> Household Management
-> Finances
amother
OP
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 8:24 pm
I've heard of this concept of people promising a certain amount of tzedaka at the beginning of the year which then equals to 10% of their annual income. If you committed to that, did you see miracles? Looking for inspiration because its something dh and I really want to do, since we were never very on top of our maaser
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amother
Almond
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 9:44 pm
Never heard of this. I thought the concept of maaser is to calculate 10% of your income after you earn it and then give it to tzedakah. How could you commit to maaser in advance without knowing if you'll end up making more or less than that amount? Do you have a halachic source for this practice?
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amother
Bluebell
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 9:54 pm
If you haven’t been careful about maaser, start being careful about it. Committing to an amount you pull out of a hat and expecting miracles is planning to fail imo. What about when you don’t earn a huge amount of money and can’t meet your commitment? You’ll end up right back where you started.
It’s harder but more in line with Judaism to just do the thing - give 10% of each paycheck.
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amother
OP
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 10:03 pm
We are actually doing very well financially, but you know how they say those that have 100 want 200...
Anyway, we do give plenty of tzedaka (which we count as maaser), but but we'venever been careful with exact calculations, so we might have given too little or too much, I have no idea.
I thought if people have had experience with this it would be really inspirational to me to actually promise these large sums rather than just giving without knowing any numbers.
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amother
Antiquewhite
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:01 pm
There are two mitzvos. Maaser and tzedaka.
One must give tzedaka. The shiur for tzedaka is maaser (or Chomesh 1/5).
One who had enough to support his/her family must separate maaser. (Those who don’t have enough do not have the obligation.) What can be done with maaser after it is separated is a separate matter.
But maaser is meant to be separated and calculated
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amother
Linen
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:08 pm
Unless you are an employee with a set salary, how would you know in September how much income you would have throughout the year?
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4thebooks
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:09 pm
amother OP wrote: | We are actually doing very well financially, but you know how they say those that have 100 want 200...
Anyway, we do give plenty of tzedaka (which we count as maaser), but but we'venever been careful with exact calculations, so we might have given too little or too much, I have no idea.
I thought if people have had experience with this it would be really inspirational to me to actually promise these large sums rather than just giving without knowing any numbers. |
I remember Berel Solomon putting out a video about giving 20% masser and promising it ahead.
https://youtu.be/QkJNgal0RRE
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amother
OP
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:23 pm
amother Linen wrote: | Unless you are an employee with a set salary, how would you know in September how much income you would have throughout the year? |
Thats the point. You don't know, and if you promise lets say 100k hashem will make you earn 1 million that year.
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amother
Red
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:26 pm
amother OP wrote: | I've heard of this concept of people promising a certain amount of tzedaka at the beginning of the year which then equals to 10% of their annual income. If you committed to that, did you see miracles? Looking for inspiration because its something dh and I really want to do, since we were never very on top of our maaser |
Yes, BH
We got out of our debt and covered large looming expenses.
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amother
Steelblue
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:43 pm
amother Red wrote: | Yes, BH
We got out of our debt and covered large looming expenses. |
Can you tell me more about this and exactly how you did it? We also promised a big amount for tzedaka but didn’t actually send any checks to anyone has our accounts are overdrawn and we’re drowning In bills and so far the yeshua didn’t come yet.
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amother
OP
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Thu, Jun 08 2023, 11:55 pm
amother Red wrote: | Yes, BH
We got out of our debt and covered large looming expenses. |
Wow, that sounds incredible.
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Trademark
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Fri, Jun 09 2023, 12:16 am
amother OP wrote: | Thats the point. You don't know, and if you promise lets say 100k hashem will make you earn 1 million that year. |
If this is a true concept you probably have to really believe in it. You can't go into it hoping for a miracle because it happened to others you have to really really believe that Hashem will provide for you.
The people who saw the miracle probably really wanted to give tzedaka with their whole heart and believed that Hashem will provide.
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amother
Daisy
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Fri, Jun 09 2023, 12:30 am
I heard it like this (don't quote me lol) let's say you have 35k in your account. You promise Hashem that you'll give 30k to tzedakah over the year in hopes of you getting 300k (or 150 if you do chomesh) and whether or not you make anything, you still have the means to give that 30k to tzedakah. I heard that that's what you're supposed to do and you'll see miracles. I'm not sure if it's from this (obviously) but it's only been half a year since we did this and we are Baruch Hashem doing much better than all our years previously.
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amother
Garnet
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Fri, Jun 09 2023, 1:21 am
Maybe other people simply have greater emunah than I do. But it seems strange to me to try and force Hashem's hand or to rely on a miracle in advance.
I have a monthly salary that varies a bit depending on my hours. After each month, I deduct job related costs and calculate maaser which I then pay to tzedaka or other beneficial organizations.
After a break of several years for personal reasons (I was very angry at a psak I received from our rav) I re-started taking maaser in the way I described above. Since then, B"H, I have noticed that my savings have been going up slowly but constantly and my whole group got a raise in salary.
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amother
Kiwi
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Fri, Jun 09 2023, 1:27 am
I never did it quite the way OP describes, but for quite a while I would give maaser (actually chomesh) in advance. Not huge amounts, but I'd give $25 more maaser than I needed to give.
I keep a running log of income and maaser given, so I could see in realtime the amount of money we had and how much maaser I had given.
It was interesting how hard it was to stay ahead with maaser! As soon as I got $100 ahead, $500 would come in and I was back at zero.
Over that period of time we paid off most of our credit card debt and got to a much better place financially.
Apparently Hashem did not intend for that to be our lot long term, because at some point it stopped working, so to speak. I had to pay rent and other bills and I fell significantly behind on maaser and was completely unable to get ahead.
Recently I started giving maaser again (I still have a record of the amount we owe so I can pay it back one day) and I'm watching our financial situation sloooowly improving.
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amother
Junglegreen
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Fri, Jun 09 2023, 2:45 am
I can’t imagine saying I’m going to give money, but I don’t have. We have seen miracles with our income and we are very careful to set up a separate accounts and to give us money comes in. In my opinion that brings the biggest blessing I’m not relying on any miracles but I’m doing the Mitzvah right away without pushing it off. Like we used to give it the end of the year and now we give every single month. I told my husband we should not wait at all as soon as the money comes in and we need to give it out. I feel like that brings a lot of blessing. I don’t think I need a promises because what if we really don’t make the money we’re gonna take it out of our kids mouths?
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