Rabbi Sholom Klass also discussed supporting children from one’s charitable funds and cited many authorities who permit doing so. We cited authorities who disagree. Even Birkei Yosef who claims that it is permitted discourages doing so. The Aruch Hashulchan claims that one who deprives the poor of support by using charitable funds for one’s own children. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein notes that social conditions have changed in that children today remain dependent for much longer thus obviating use of ma’aer kesafim for their support.
We cited from Responsa Me’ah She’arim, where Rabbi Yitzchak Silberstein relates an incident involving a fundraiser who asked an elderly Rav Dovid Karliner for funds for the famed Navharodoker Yeshiva. After having received the elderly gaon’s donation he was caught by surprise when the gaon offered to give him another donation, having forgotten that he had just, moments earlier, given him money.
We cited the Rambam (to Avot 3:5) who writes that merits are attained according to the number of one’s deeds. Thus, giving a small sum to many poor people is better than giving one large sum to one needy person. The Chofetz Chayim adds that acting in this manner accustoms a person to giving charity.
Last week we noted that giving numerous times to the same individual also helps a person overcome his yetzer ha’ra. We noted the Chazon Ish’s view that if a giver has the wherewithal and the receiver has the need, he must give him. He notes, though, that our sages caution not to impoverish oneself through giving. Rabbi Silberstein also stresses that a person who asks for funds numerous times from the same individual is guilty of wrongdoing since he deprives other poor people of funds. He notes that it is imperative for a fundraiser to remind an elderly person that he gave him once before. Otherwise, he is guilty of geneivat da’at.
Last week we referred to a unique application of the dictum of Avot 3:15:“Everything is [measured] according to the preponderance of one’s actions” and the Rambam’s explanation that “merits are not attained by a person according to the magnitude of a single action but rather according to the preponderance of the number of one’s many actions.” A person who donates a mezuzah to a synagogue entrance, we suggested, will reap the merits of those who enter and depart each and every day.
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It is important that we understand the seriousness with which our sages regard charitable funds. The Gemara (Arachin 6a-6b) teaches the following: “If a person declared, ‘This coin is to be given to charity,’ he may exchange it until it is in the hand of the gabbai [Rashi, sv “l’shanota,” explains that he may exchange it for another coin and use it for his own personal needs]. However, once it is in the hand of the gabbai, he is not allowed to exchange it.”
We see that although this money is being given to charity only through the good graces of a donor who earned it through honest hard work, he no longer has any rights to it once it passes from his hands.
With this Gemara as background, let us look at a responsum of the gaon Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (Responsa Nodah B’Yehuda, vol. 2, Yoreh De’ah 155). The following situation was brought to his attention: A gabbai tzedakah sent a messenger to collect the donation of an anonymous repeat donor. The messenger brought back the money but placed it – without first counting it – in the gabbai’s personal purse. The gabbai now didn’t know what to do. How much of the money in the purse was his and how much belonged to charity?