Posts Tagged ‘charity’
Kol Dichpin – A Seder Without Guests
- This year around the world for the first time in living memory almost every seder this Pesach will have to take place without guests.
- I have set out my general thoughts on how our Judaism can best flourish at a time when the community cannot function – see my post What’s The Derech and Who’s off It – A Discussion of Core Jewish Values (below and at https://www.danielgreenberg.co.uk/shiurim-and-lectures/).
- But a specific issue arises for the seder: we will begin as always with a ritual announcement that all who are hungry should come and join us – and we will know that we do not mean it: that we have not been able to invite guests, and that there will be people sitting alone whom we would have loved to have invited.
- So, simply, what kavono can we have in saying “kol dichpin” this year? Perhaps we should leave it out?
- It seems to me that we need to start now: there are many people for whom existing financial difficulties have been exacerbated by coronavirus; or whom the lockdown will have precipitated into new financial difficulties.
- There are also many wonderful charitable organisations which are doing their best to help.
- So if we make efforts to give to those organisations now a little bit more than we might otherwise have done (perhaps particularly where we have money that we might have spent on a large seder that is now available for other things) then we can sit at our seder table and in saying “kol dichpin” we can reflect that we have done our best to ensure that as many people as possible are joining our seder remotely, in the sense that we have shared with them before Pesach so that they can enjoy their seder in peace and comfort.
- L’shonoh ha’bo’oh b’Yerushalayim to us all – hoping that we can celebrate next year’s Pesach in a world that has been spiritually enriched by our collective experiences of a closer connection with God and Jewish values as a result of our enforced isolations.
Bungee jumping for charity – the Jewish view
1. On 10th June the Jewish Student Chaplaincy organisation is arranging a charity event in which chaplains and past and present students will jump from a 140ft Bungee Crane.
2. A parent of present students asked me to comment on whether this is permissible in halochoh. Clearly, it is not.
3. Searching the internet reveals a commonly-advanced statistic for bungee jumping of a fatality average of 1 in 500,000 jumps. That, of course, is generally compared favourably with driving a certain distance or crossing the road or being struck by lightning.
4. But the comparisons miss the point for halachic purposes. I am required to guard the life that God has given me and not to expose myself to unnecessary risks, for which purpose “necessary” is determined by reference to whether the risk is reasonably proportionate to the need to undertake the potentially dangerous activity.
5. Since there is no need to fall off a crane attached to a piece of elastic, the acceptable level of risk in doing so is nil.
6. “But it’s for charity” – this makes no difference. If it would be wrong to do something without the excuse of raising money, it is wrong to do it despite that excuse. Indeed, charities should generally be more careful than they are about profiting only from permitted activities (and not, for example, selling £100 tickets for a chance to win a car, which is gambling of a kind strongly disapproved of in halochoh).
7. Worse than that, if a charitable motive encourages people to do something that they would have enough sense not to do otherwise, the charity is transgressing the Biblical prohibition of putting a stumbling block before the blind.
8. Someone who wants to bungee jump as part of an athletic exercise, or for sight-seeing purposes, and as part of a carefully calculated assessment of the small risk against the great pleasure they expect to feel, they may have a halachic justification. (Whether that would apply to a person with dependent family is, of course, more doubtful.) But in this case people who would otherwise have no wish to jump off a crane, and may actually be frightened of doing so, are being encouraged to conquer their instincts (which some may recognise as common sense) because of the gratitude that they feel for the chaplains.
9. The Jewish chaplains are uniformly wonderful people whose dedication and service are exemplary. Their care of our students is superbly inspirational; it should, however, extend to discouraging past and present students (and themselves) from jumping off a crane, which is generally regarded as an unwise thing to do.
Haiti – Giving tzedokoh funds to disaster relief
1. Amidst the appalling disaster and devastation of the Haiti earthquake, it is at least good to know that the reaction of so many people around the world has been “what can we do to help?”.
2. And it is also good to know that the Jewish community is not backward in coming forward. Israel had its team of medics standing by ready to join the relief efforts within hours of the news hitting the media. And Jews around the world are joining others in contributing funds to the relief campaigns.
3. The issue of using tzedokoh funds for humanitarian disaster relief is really rather simple, but I discuss it here because I have received reports of at least one person who should know better – being responsible for children’s spiritual development – talking nonsense.
4. There are two main talmudic principles involved.
5. First, the allocation of limited resources is that “the poor of your city come before the poor of other places”. That applies at all levels, so my family come first, my local community comes next, and so on outwards.
6. The rabbis record that we give to non-Jewish charities as well as to Jewish charities because of “darchei sholom” – the ways of peace – and there is considerable discussion as to what precisely this means.
7. Commonsense makes it clear that the first principle does not and could not mean “do not give a penny to another city until your city has everything it could possibly wish for”, because on that basis nobody would ever get beyond their own immediate family in giving tzedokoh. What it does mean is that in deciding how to divide whatever I am giving to charitable purposes overall, I give relatively more to those for whom I am more responsible by virtue of proximity and expectation, and less to those for whom I am less responsible.
8. As to the second principle, what is required by darchei sholom has changed in the last few decades in a number of ways. When we lived in small isolated villages in Poland, our responsibilities were limited by our knowledge. Famines in Africa were thought of, if at all, as remote events affecting people of whom we knew little or nothing. Nowadays, almost every Jew in this country sees the world news in a newspaper of some kind or on the television or hears it on the radio. Almost every Jew will at some point last week have seen the faces of people wounded by the earthquake, and most will have heard their cries.
9. Whether one sees the principle of darchei sholom as being primarily about our community’s international reputation or about our own self-respect and spiritual direction, it is simply impossible that the descendants of our father Abraham could see the faces of the injured and hear the cries of the suffering and not be moved to wish – almost to need – to be associated in some small way in the efforts to relieve their suffering.
10. And we can rest assured that when we give money to the disaster relief funds we are following the example of sensitivity set by the gedolei Torah over the years – the “Tzaddik in Our Time” Reb Aryeh Levine, for example, gave money to African famine relief: although immersed in the Old City with very limited opportunity for finding out about events in the wider world, the cries of the famine-stricken somehow found their way to his ears with the inevitable result.
11. Put another way, the application of the principles of “your city first” and “darchei sholom” has been affected by the shrinking of the world: my brother in Africa is no longer a remote concept, it is an actual face that I have seen. Individuals will make their own decisions about the allocation of their own resources. Some may prefer not to give their basic ma’aser tithes to humanitarian disasters of this kind, but to add to their ma’aser money for this purpose. Whatever each person’s individual decision, we can feel closest to our father Abraham at moments like this when we are following his lead in serving God by caring for mankind.
All Proceeds to Charity – Promise or Prayer?
1. Nowadays it is common to see the words “all proceeds to charity” or something along those lines on all kinds of advertisements, from books to concerts.
2. There are, however, a few potential ambiguities with this formula, based on the uncertainty of what is meant by “all”, what is meant by “proceeds”, what is meant by “to” and what is meant by “charity”.
3. Proceeds is generally understood in this context to mean profits, and fair enough: although in some cases the actual cost of producing whatever it is has been generously underwritten by a charitable donor, in which case the gross receipts from “customers” may go to charity, in most cases it is accepted that proceeds means proceeds net of actual expenses.
4. But what amounts to actual expenses in this context varies widely. In particular, where the person who is offering the service is paying himself or herself a salary out of the charity’s funds, “expenses” is likely to include a deduction that goes into the pocket of that person and possibly other employees of the charity.
5. Again, fair enough, one may say: people who run charities also like to eat occasionally; and where a charity requires more time and expertise than can be provided by a part-time amateur, the charity will of course need to factor into its running expenses the costs of salaries for its staff.
6. But in order to avoid halachic questions of theft from public funds and g’neivas da’as (“stealing the mind” – creating a false impression) three things are needed – transparency, accountability and proportionality.
7. As to transparency, it should be clear to donors that they are contributing towards the living expenses of the person or persons running the charity. Sometimes this will be sufficiently clear by implication: but not always – and if there is reasonable ambiguity, it should be dispelled in some appropriately express way. And if the person collecting for charity is on a commission, the amount of that commission should be made clear to the donor at the time of soliciting the donation.
8. As to accountability, charities should not just produce the accounts required by the Charity Commission: they should produce and publish their complete accounts so that people who donate even small amounts are likely to have access to the accounts. For example, if a charity has a standing advertisement in a synagogue, the annual accounts should be sent to the synagogue and it should be invited to exhibit them in the same way.
9. As to proportionality, salaries should be proportionate both to the resources of the charity and to the qualifications of the person providing the services. One sometimes suspects that people pay themselves or are paid out of charitable funds salaries at a rate that they would find it hard to command in the commercial sector.
10. Those who run charities without charging for their time, or who give all their time to charities and charge a reasonable amount for it, do an immense service both to those whom the charity benefits and to all of us who they allow to participate in it through donations. But by agreeing to run a charity one accepts a sacred trust that must not be tainted by hidden or unreasonable personal gain.
Charity in the Credit Crunch
1. This Thursday the Agudah rabbonim have called a day of prayer on account of the continuing and deepening impact of the recession. With so many local families and institutions in financial difficulty, the rabbis urge us to pray for Divine compassion.
2. At the same time, they remind us that those of us who are still blessed with jobs and sufficient incomes should be giving what we can to communal institutions and other tzedokohs.
3. The concept of the tithing of income derives from this week’s parashah; at the end of a conversation between Yaakov and Hashem (Bereishis 28:20-22). Yaakov says to Hashem, in essence, “if you are with me on my journey, give me food and clothing and bring me home safely, then I will give back one tenth of whatever you give me”.
4. A strange way to talk to God. Striking a bargain with God in this peremptory fashion is strange enough to begin with. And to promise to pay the donor for a benefit conferred by agreeing to return one tenth of the benefit is strange enough to be going on with; how should that convince the donor to give?
5. The practice of tithing is a recognition that everything belongs to and comes from God. If we recognise the Divine origin of everything we have, we can turn to God with confidence and trust, and ask Him to continue His blessings; by promising to use them for good (a concept which includes, but is not limited to, setting a part aside for others) we are trying to make ourselves fitting recipients.
6. In hard times when we are confronted by financial difficulties on all sides it is that much easier not to take our material blessings for granted; if realising our blessings encourages us to give increasingly generously to various causes, encouraged by the increased importance and potential impact of a small amount of money in troubled times, we can see why the rabbis have always stressed that the perfect Messianic world is more likely to emerge out of troubled times – nothing is more likely to lead to it than an enhanced sense of our responsibilities to each other and the importance of sharing our blessings.
The end does not justify the means (2) – Charity gambling
- The son of the rabbi of my shul was hawking raffle tickets this morning to collect money for his school (a separatist institution – of which more another posting).
- In Jewish thought there are two kinds of objection to gambling. First, it is close to theft, because the fool who gambles does not really intend to part with his money – at the moment of placing the stake his imagination suspends his reason; if he knew for certain that he was going to lose the stake, he would not put it down. Secondly, money won by gambling is not money earned by contributing to the well-being of the world, but by preying parasitically on the dreams of the weak-minded.
- A 50p charity raffle ticket is not serious gambling, by either of these tests. The person giving the money is happy to see it go to a good cause, and is giving it out of charitable intent (or, possibly, embarassment – but we hope for the best).
- A £100 ticket for a chance to win a car, with the number of tickets advertised as inducement to rely on maximum chances of winning, is gambling pure and simple. Whether the money is being collected by a businessman or a charity, the process is contrary to Jewish law and the only difference is that the charity ought certainly to know better.
- Between the two extremes lies a vast grey area where it will be difficult or impossible for a charity to know for certain whether a fund-raising activity is contrary to Jewish law or not. But the charity can be sure of this: appeal to people’s worse instincts and you may gain more money, but it will be tainted money and will bring no simen brochoh (blessing); appeal to people’s best instincts and whatever you collect is a source of true blessing for the charity and for its donors.
Speed camera detectors
- On a previous occasion I outlined the Torah objections to high-prize raffles being used by charities. The Side-by-Side charity, an enormously worthy charity that works with children who have special needs, runs an annual multi-option raffle known as a Chinese Auction. Looking at this year’s list of prizes I found something that horrified me even more than the basic concept of exploiting human greed to raise money for charity.
- Raffle 13 is for a “GPS Snooper Safety Alert System”. The caption to the prize is “Don’t get caught by that speed camera – don’t be tricked, be one step ahead”. The detector is advertised as providing “advance warning of police speed traps, accident blackspots, speed cameras, schools, hazardous and dangerous situations on the road”.
- There is only one reason for warning people that they are approaching speed traps or cameras: to enable them to speed without being caught.
- A number of aspects of Torah law are engaged by this device. First, it is against English law to aid and abet the commission of an offence. Facilitating speeding is aiding the commission of an offence and is therefore unlawful. Supplying the detector is part of the facilitation, and is also unlawful. Torah law requires us to abide by the law of our host community – the dina d’malchuto – and the provision of this prize is therefore contrary to English law and halachah.
- Secondly, speeding itself is dangerous, and is therefore contrary to the Torah requirement to protect ones own health.
- Thirdly, speeding poses a known and statistically significant threat to the lives of others: therefore if a person speeds and kills or injures others he will be culpable in halochoh both in the civil sense as a mazik (tortfeasor) and as having neglected the injunction to care for others as for oneself.
- Fourthly, the Jewish equivalent of part of the prohibition of aiding and abetting an offence is the prohibition against putting a stumbling block before the blind: by providing this detector one supports and encourages those who are too stupid or wicked to see the importance of not driving dangerously.
- How appalling that a charity dedicated to the wonderful work of supporting children with physical and mental disabilities should have, in a moment’s uncharacteristic thoughtlessness, caused itself to assist one of the crimes that is most responsible for causing death and injury to children and adults in England today.
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