CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #120 Dr. Jonathan Donath - The Gift of Charity

what brings meaning what brings happiness to life the secret to happiness is being a giving person whether it's sadaka or hasid the more you give to someone the more you love it which is to give the more you give the more you love if you're gonna give a hundred dollars to one person or a dollar to 100 different people give a dollar to 100 different people because it helps the giving muscle what more could Hashem want than than his sons and daughters coming together to give to our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate [Music] thank you [Music] and welcome to Torah talks Tuesday night program with special guests we have with us Dr Jonathan donut welcome how are you great thanks so much for having me amazing amazing what an honor the founder of dailygiving.org what a revolution what an exciting uh door talk we're gonna be having tonight the topic is the gift of Charity and uh doctor if you give us a little background about yourself before we uh talk about the sure sure um I'm not a New Yorker I was I grew up in Minneapolis Minnesota and I grew up there my parents moved there um a long time ago and raised myself and my three siblings there and there was no Jewish high school at the time so we all went out of town for high school I went to Skokie Shiva for four years and uh that made my way to Israel for a year and a half and then to why you and then I became a chiropractor so it's a chiropractic school for four years and then I've been living in New York since January 2000. nice amazing and then how did this whole thing just happen it didn't just happen it didn't just happen basically I I had listened to uh I was listening to a cheer one day and uh it was for sure yeah and uh it was talking about how even a small Mitzvah matters which could be the topic of tonight's year right you never know who's gonna listen to be inspired by by tonight's talk right and uh never forget how the idea was brought to me by Robert pesachron like yeah it sounds amazing sure will be one of the organizations and stuff but you know how much are we gonna get already but can I know that small action that small dollar is adding up and it's making such a big difference yeah so that's what happened I I listened to Shear it was Thomas small Mrs matter I put a dollar in stock a box like we always do and chill every day and I just had this this like very strong feeling just hit me that no matter how much to duck I give I still get a missa for that one dollar so I was like how can I guarantee myself that it's a stuck at every single day no matter what for a dollar that's the idea that popped into my head I could not get out of my head it was very strong I had a hard time focusing on x-ray and I went home and I started Googling is someone you know doing automating daily giving instead of giving I remember as a kid my mother always telling me you know give me a penny a nickel to bring to school and I was like what happened why did we stop doing that as an adults you know why there's so many things that were we we were trying and we're told to do daily why is the DACA daily not a thing and so thank God I I was so surprised that I couldn't find anyone doing it and I and it's funny you mentioned Rabbi Chrome because the thought I had in my head well first my first goal was to my website guy who built my my website for my business and I said sure what do you think of this idea this is a great idea sounds like can you build me a website he said absolutely nice and then I called my other best friends we started meeting about you know what to call it in the 501c3 becoming a non-profit such you know different ideas how to how to execute it and then I thought to myself if I could convince her by pays off chrome to speak about daily giving the way he talks about tar anytime I am going blow this thing up that was that was that was the second I big idea and uh I got Robert krone's number and I called and I remember in the rabbinical uh he's on the original Council yes so I called him and my heart was beating out of my chest and as the voice of Tori's time picked up the phone I couldn't believe it and I told him he said it's a great idea like no one's doing this everybody no one's doing it so he said you know we need to get our Biblical Council together No One's Gonna know that the money's not going to your kids college fund I said you know what's a good idea so that's that's weird enough for the Greenberg remote yeah a great group yeah so can you please explain how giving charity is a gift to us the one who is giving the charity so yeah I mean listen to sadaka uh is one of those things where where you know you ask someone like what's the what what brings meaning what brings happiness to life what's like the secret to happiness and I think that the secret to happiness is is being a giving person whether it's sadaka or hasid whatever it is like what makes you happiest in life right what you know rev destler says the more you give to someone the more you love it right I'm sure that's why we love our children so much which is to give the more you give the more you love right right and so I mean sadak was the same way right like it makes you feel so good sometimes sometimes you have to you almost say like am I giving this selfishly right because because it makes you feel so good right um but I also think there's another parts of sadaka that's that's that's difficult I think that I've seen as you as you run your own nonprofit you see that it's not always easy to get people to give and um I I really truly think that Hashem gave us this big gay so horror when it comes to sadaka and I it's so interesting that I see some people are like just like born givers they're just they just they just do it they love it they give you like the shirt off their back and like it's not hard for them and then and then I'm not one of those people naturally I'll admit right now you know I'm not one of those natural people that's easy for me to give I think that it's gotten much much much easier and that's what the wrong Mom says like if you're gonna give a hundred dollars to one person or a dollar to 100 different people give a dollar to 100 different people because it helps the giving muscle right and the more you give and the more you give the easier it is I could say that for myself that was that's been huge I think that I give way more to DACA now in the last five years than I ever did before not just a daily giving um you can hit me up later but but uh but it's really true that that it really does help uh the more the more you give the more you and it really makes you happy I mean there's not that many things that make make you truly happy in life but when you when you give someone to something you see the effect they're having like uh it's it's really a powerful thing you say it's what's special about daily giving is the fact that you're not just giving towards one specific type of a cause it's not just one organization that does for example it's so many a whole gamut whether it's hatala whether it's those that are poor whether it's those that Unfortunately they have the Mahal and they have disease and the sicknesses every type of organization is uh in the sense that under your belt with with daily giving that's exactly right we call it a diversified portfolio it's a DACA ETF right and that's why we talked before let's let's tell your listeners like that that you know I um Ravi and Eve said you know a long time ago he said you know we try to Kazakh tried this and I'd say probably 12 15 different Founders organizations told me we have to admit that we thought when daily getting started it was going to be a total epic fail we all tried that that's the oldest trick in the book we have three thousand five thousand givers just get everyone to do one month 30 bucks a month and that's our whole budget and each one of these Founders told me it was it was it wasn't just like like it almost worked out it was like it was like a total and epic fail and the reason I think that daily giving is struck with people you know you know I'll say struck gold and in terms of just getting so many people we have now over 15 000 givers from 39 countries right uh giving a dollar a day together right like what more could I say reporting by the time it will be right yeah hopefully it'll be much more of it right but what more can Hashem want than than his sons and daughters coming together to give to our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate and I think the secret sauce is the actus and the fact that we give to a different organization every day and different types of organization because it doesn't matter how wealthy you are you can't give to everyone we get those envelopes in the mail we get calls every day like we just thank God there's a there's a lot of need there's a lot of need and we can't get everyone but daily giving for a dollar a day you get to help over 75 different incredible Jewish numbers I remember it started it up uh you were one of 36. but your checks used to be a lot smaller now they're a lot bigger I mean they continue being bigger so quite often people feel like oh you know I have so many personal needs why should I be a giver I need why should I be a giver you know actually something I I don't know I can't quote anyone but I I heard it recently um a podcast or something that basically said that even if you're on full tuition and you are getting sadaka giving to you you're literally living in poverty you are still responsible for sadaka 10 Meister right I was I was shocked by that um and I think that it it it's because even if you use some of the money someone gave you sudaka to give to others like I think Hashem wants you to have that feeling also of being a giver right like that's how important it is the bigger Hashem is the ultimate Giver right if we sit and think about you know I'm a pain physician I treat people in pain every day all day long right I see suffering right and and you know so if you think about like what has to go right trillion things have to go right every second for us to open up our eyes in the morning and for us to talk after I have this conversation and just and if we sat and thought about we'd be grateful Beyond grateful all the time but we forget right and uh so I think that Hashem is the ultimate Giver who's giving to us every single second every single day and when you give back to someone it's it's just we're trying Hashem is the ultimate giver and we're supposed to act the same way 100 and we know in the Torah it says that uh it's a palindrome not time is to give noon also an English interesting enough n-a-t-a-n when you give you get the more you give the more you're going to be getting so people everybody needs everybody has needs and wants and stuff but definitely the more we give to others the more Hashem will give back to us and also giving can also be hasid it doesn't have to be money that's true right sometimes people really truly can't afford to give it even a dollar as the saying goes time is money so many times people spend time volunteering for an organization for a good cause sometimes much better than money because with their time and energy in kahoot and ideas and whatever it may be they're able to do much bigger but and better things many people think oh you know in order to start an organization I need a certain amount of money in the bank not specifically many organizations started with nothing it was just a mission it was a goal it was it was it was uh you know we had that one to help thank God we're able to help so many people that's what it comes down to so any stories stick out from daily giving uh or daily givers yeah I think that because this is we're talking about you know the actual you know giving to duck an hour like not just daily giving but this one story and I told this before so I apologize if your listeners have heard the story but I just think it's it's just a me complex it's a me con place for all moment and that is that um one gentleman once signed up for daily giving and oh let's just preface the story when you sign up for daily giving every single day you get an email telling you where your money went that day right so it's an incredible way you're learning about sedakas that's one of the greatest things right like I've had other organizations told us a really amazing povertisation that helps widows they told us that one day uh they couldn't figure it out but eight people went on their website on a random Tuesday and gave them a lot of money and they could not figure out how they were internally asking organization does any did anyone have a meeting why did eight people go to our website on a random Tuesday to sign it for daily giving I mean to sign up for islamically live and they finally realized that it was the day the daily giving had given them and we sent out our email to you know 14 15 every time 40 000 people with a link and a video about the organization and people were so inspired what they did they gave more right so we don't even know how much we've we've already handed out over 10.8 million dollars in four years right but we don't really know the true impact because I know for a fact another head of organization told me that he got a ten thousand dollar check for somebody said how did you hear about it they said daily giving wow so so that's another thing but it's an everyday an email so this channel every day I am a daily Giver just for the record for the whole world to know for many years for many years yes yes thank you thank you for giving and um and basically every day getting email so this gentleman one day signed up for daily giving and then 30 seconds later signed up again with a different email and then proceeded to do that five different times with five different email addresses and I called up to thank him and I said thank you so much did you sign up your children because I know a lot of people that's an amazing way to teach your kids about sadaka right you can't tell your kids about large checks you write but a dollar a day you could maybe tell your kids about it and so he said yes I signed up my kids I said wow that's incredible how old are your children he said one two and four wow and I said you signed up your young kids he said yeah I already reserved their Gmail addresses so now in seven eight nine years when I give them their passwords and they get their email for the first time they're going to open it up and they're gonna see only one email repeated hundreds or even thousands of times thank you for your donation and they're gonna see that they were always givers every single day what a powerful story that's an amazing idea by the way I never thought that I have to tell my wife if you're listening she opened up emails for the kids and do that that's right and you know what just for hopefully everyone is inspired to do that right now you don't actually have to open up five different accounts you could do five dollars a day or seven dollars a or hopefully you have 15 a day for your children whatever and we could just put all their email addresses and you don't have to open up you get one tax donation you don't have to get 15 different emails you know it's amazing so how does it work so that literally a dollar a day goes out of the people's credit cards or oh good question good question glad you asked yeah so there's a there's a transaction fee when you sign up for anything so if we charge everyone a dollar every single day 30 cents of that dollar would go to the credit card right so you have two choices do we have a monthly option so it's 32.60 a month or 384 a year and the reason why it's a couple a dollar more for the month and a couple dollars a month a year is that there's it's just purely for the credit card fee it takes there's a there's a two point whatever percent and then there's the transaction fee so literally so what comes into daily evenings bank account is 100 cents of that dollar goes back out daily giving doesn't take a penny a hundred cents a dollar goes to the seduct organizations like hazak like tour anytime like bone anytime and hatella Aaron 24 7 and can't pass in Avengers helping hand and phenomena there's so many good news yeah you might get in trouble if you're missing some names yeah yeah but all the students is back into Jonah the doctor Donuts what what an inspiration it's unbelievable so so one is watching and saying why should I become a daily Giver what's like if they need that extra push that like we've heard so much yes I mean like that's a good question I think that what we're even though there are people that go to Minion every day and they die every day they get to duck there's people that say I go to Dominion every day I give a couple dollars every day even though there wasn't meaning during covet and I know the daily giving during covert was really really pushing it out there saying that people aren't going to school right right this is your opportunity but even people go to show I tell them how often do you have an experience every like every day that you could do something with 15 000 of your brothers and sisters every day right what's a dollar today every day our dollar becomes less and less valuable right if they leave daily daily becomes a better deal every single day it's still only a dollar a day right but your dollar when you give together has such a massive impact we're giving over almost 5.6 million dollars a year out and even even if you're the number 15 000 dead you're like okay that's a lot but it's over five and a half million dollars a year we're just starting right wow if we get one percent of all Jews to give a dollar a day do you know how much that'll be if it's 14 million almost 15 million that's a one percent will be 150 000 a day it would be like over 66 over 60 million that was 70 million dollars everyone else to decide with regards to organizations every so often those checks come in we'll be able to do a lot more good yeah for cloudy so that's right Jewish people and that's the key like right like you like you see the impact you're having right that's the thing daily giving chooses very impactful organization so that people can feel like they are actually having an impact right so many people actually struggle they tell me they struggle with Sedaka like what's their 36 dollar check going to do and what's their 180 check into is they're really gonna move the needle and with daily giving I was telling you uh Jonathan rosenblue wrote this great article on mishbach magazine about a year ago and about 100 people signed up from just one article which is you might seems a little but you know what people I tell you people that the the Yates are hard to give like people might hear this right now and they go oh I'm gonna give but if you don't do it right now if you don't hit pause and take the 30 seconds to go to dailygiving.org and actually sign up you you might forget that's I've seen it a thousand times we would have we would literally have a hundred thousand right people like you must be so excited how many how much you get like I thought we would have ten thousand in the first two months right it took it took almost five it took four and a half years to get to fifteen thousand right we should be at 115 000 by now you know right we always ask each other why don't we have more it's like and everyone who gives loves it like the satisfaction rate is like a hundred percent like everyone just loves being a part of it so that's why it's the actus and the fact that no matter how much you're giving no matter even if you think you're giving every day you don't have your wall on you mostly Shabbos right ah not bad right most of your job is you have to remember your cover 365 I have I want to say which Rob on that Urban Council said you know what I love the fact since don't have cash anymore whatever even if I'm not vibrant of it I don't have the coin on me like I know I'm covered they leave I gave my daily giving cover coins I still do those two three coins every morning amazing very very very very inspiring to actually Donuts uh you know there's a saying I've been using a lot lately I remember where I got it from but it's very very powerful right now people are getting a lot of information about daily giving and many people are are inspired about daily giving now that's two eyes information and inspiration now the third eye is one that most people don't get to and that's why you're only up to fifteen thousand people not a hundred and fifty thousand people plus whatever the number is is implementation they need to take the information and the inspiration and implement it and do it right away and make sure that they use a kazakling absolutely tell us when it comes back you know he loves to know how people heard about us but uh the the the the in all seriousness it's an amazing policy it's unbelievable and and you know it's not you know the Torah and the learning that's the main thing but it's the actions we have to take action and this is definitely a cause that all the delays said I've seen the videos that you had during the campaigns of the top rabbis of the world speaking about daily giving and how an amazing revolutionary cause it is to be part of and to know of it since the Inception it makes me feel good right is an OG an original one of the first 36 organizations they got from daily giving now we're giving over 75 but yeah tell another story yeah another great story um someone had signed up for daily giving um it was the first year and she she was single I know her was sort of distantly related and she signed up for two dollars a day and I called her up and I said why did you sign you call everyone not anymore it still it never loses his thrill though when my phone vibrates I look down and I see you know a new Giver right like it doesn't get old but oh you get the right yeah I I don't I try to call you know sometimes when people sign up for the whole families I see like someone sign up for eight dollars a day so everyone wants a call from Doctor don't know if you call if you sign up for more than five dollars a day I try to personally call I try I try really hard to um I wish I can call everyone I really do but I have a full-time job besides this oh really and um but but anyway I called her up and um I asked her because she was you know again someone I knew and I could be honest and I said why did you sign up for two dollars a day she was single she was 35 years old never been married and she said I signed up one for myself and one for my future husband Revenue six months later she got engaged wow okay now I told that story to rev Benson classical from Shabbat and he speaks to singles a lot so he told that story and he sends me a text one day that this woman in Chicago had signed up her daughter she was 29 she had been dating since she's 21 it was single and she said I signed up for two dollars a day one for her one for a future husband and she signed up on May 13th and she met her husband on May 20th well okay then I was at a ornav event wallerstein was a huge friend of daily giving yeah and um where we go back yes you're doing way longer long before I did I ca I don't know if I could take credit for Abby Washington but many are about to have this because in the beginning days to reach out to them and say Rabbi this is an amazing organization really what Warehouse right let's speak about it was have made a lot of abundant celebrities you know actually you know what I want to tell a story I never told that new story in a second okay um this is something just happened okay but anyway so so I was at an ornava event and these two girls came up to me single girls and they were already daily givers and they said can you set can you set us up and I didn't really have anyone that I knew that I could set them up with but I said you know there's a couple people have signed up for two dollars a day why don't you add another dollar day for your future husband and so I got a text about three months later one of them got engaged she said I I can't I can't I just I did it so I gave a little more Sadako what's the worst gonna happen and she got engaged three months later look at that there's some schools over here and it's happened and it's happened even more so yeah you know even if you give Shalom start with a month start start giving a dollar day monthly and just see how much you love it see how it makes you feel and you don't you'll see the broccoli that comes into your life it's unblue amazing very inspiring very inspiring you got another story about robonin yes this just happened so unfortunately my aunt was Nifty or she died about two weeks ago very young very young yeah it's really sad and um so I went to Montreal my family my my wife and my kids we went to Montreal and we were in the Shiva house and um on Shabbos we had um it's so it's my father's my father's two brothers in Montreal and so it's his father's wife that passed away and um and we had a meal on Shabbos with the whole family like all our first cousins and everyone together and somehow I don't remember how it came up but my my uncle who lost his wife um said start talking about Rabbi Ari Lee Woods how he's like just go is I listen to three or four stream a week and he's just going on I was so excited the excitement of Tim talking about Ari Leibowitz through daily giving I happened early was as a daily Giver who happens to have spoken about on his very popular dafyami sheer he's spoken about daily give him many times he's probably responsible about a couple hundred people significantly leaving because of our early Woods talking about us so I have this list of actually knowing Rabbi Leibowitz and have his number and so I just I just you know my uncle's talking about him so I'm outside because I texted Robert Lewis and I said you know is there any chance you can maybe I'll call you from the sugar house tomorrow morning is there any chance you could talk to my uncle I think it would give him such such Comfort right and he said of course he said and what he said of course what do you say he said what would be my honor you know to bring the midst of to me that I could be Monaco level so it worked out you know I I minion ended whatever I called every leewards he gets on the phone okay I call my uncle out of the room and he doesn't know I just I didn't tell him and instead of early versus on the phone he he almost fell he I'm not enjoying he almost felt like physically he almost fell off the you know and he takes the phone and he walks to the next room and he's and he starts talking he's like and he just goes and you hear the excitement in his voice like I'm a big sports fan so like I I'm sitting here talking to my my cousin and I'm like mayor like this is like he's in Canada I'm like this is like you meeting your childhood hero Patrick Wah from the Montreal Canadiens or maybe like Kirby Puckett right like this is like he's not my uncle's not a sports fan and he's not a movie guy he doesn't like like this is his celebrity and and and everyone could hear him talking and he talked for like 10 minutes and like the whole place was like pretty silent and he finished he came back and he was like he was like glowing I can't tell you he was glowing and he's like he's like if I could have spoken to one person in the whole world that's why I would have wanted to talk to you and then he goes back and and my aunts was yemenite and and her her siblings five her siblings are sitting shiva too and they some of them don't speak English well and so he explained to them I heard him say he's like that was my superhero I just spoke to my superhero like I just I just want to share that there's nothing to do with me right like like this is what our Our Heroes should be our hero should be the robundum and the amazing things they do and I just uh it was a it was an amazing moment 100 and uh you know the robot may have a lot of cars that Dove to individuals like yourself like you said before that the daily emails of different organizations like kazaki like many other organizations that people get it builds the awareness you know there's many organizations that were on daily giving or are or are on daily giving I wasn't familiar with so I got to get to know a little bit just an idea for other organizations to come together one day through yeah we're we're planning something we're planning something if you would be able to Share Plans a vision of growth for daily giving in the future is it is there anything that's public knowledge that you could give I know that there's some massive campaign going on right now but I'm glad you asked yeah so right now we are in the middle uh during this we had this early who know very well of course who uh can you introduced us yeah and then he's just my team by the way also like you know I'm here sitting on this podcast but I have an incredible team like truly you've met Avatar incredible are you Freedom butcher we have a really incredible team of people who tirelessly work at growing daily it doesn't happen by itself unfortunately it's just just to to reiterate that that all expenses don't come from the daily givers that's correct we I raise we raise every penny that we spend on salaries on Advertising it's all fundraised separately there are a lot of really amazing philanthropists who love what we're doing see see the power and they help us with our back end experience the dollar goes so your dollar goes purely goes to the sadak organizations and not to overhead um and so there's incred a lot of people involved um and so Rabbi avistar had this killer idea he's like what if we call every one of our existing daily givers and we tell them about our seriously true of a campaign and all we ask is that each daily Giver commits to getting one new daily Giver that's it that's given just get one you're gonna call your friends and relatives for version of kipper anyway right like just tell them what they're giving it's true it's really sucker this is the time so if we all could just get one hopefully we'll double during a series right now that's that's the hope that's the hope so hopefully everyone listening will sign up be part of our campaign tell us you heard of us from Kazakh and uh everyone should have a good Market but we have a miniature custom for one final message uh for Torah talks whether it was in you know another story we've had a few stories another inside another uh you know take-home message final message um I think you said a lot I um I think that back to let's go back to what we started with which is like you know being a giver and a being a giver does not just necessarily mean giving to DACA right that everyone can give a little bit more of their time you know and and like just think about right now think about someone you know what I had I actually had this recent thing where one of my best friends um he told me that that something inspired him oh I said I know right from Goldberg um pushed David on a parcel Ray I think he he gave a two-minute uh thing uh I'll give a little uh parshish moose and he shot and he shouted out daily gaming so I sent it around and something else he said he said like maybe there's some some of you someone you hurt their feelings many years ago and my friend heard this message and he told me that he decided to reach out to someone who used to be his best friend he hadn't spoken to him like over 10 years that he felt he wronged and he reached out and they spoke and he said he said I said it was like I couldn't I couldn't as I was crying I couldn't even I couldn't like really get a word out the guy's like are you dying he thought he thought he was like he thought he was sick and he says no but he was inspired but I haven't go for two minutes spoke about you know just said if you know just pick up the phone call someone who you never know the powers of Pastor and Robbie's here you should hear this uh Touch Above the last two years I spoke about Shalom about peace the amount of people that reached out to me said that they they like you said picked up the phone and reached out and you know families and friends and people that just you know they didn't get along for whatever reason just so inspiring it's unbelievable right right so it's my match just it's not only the giving is not only with with with uh with tadaka there's many other ways of giving everything one of us Mr Trump should be a giver right now before you come keep her we should visit him take it upon ourselves as much as possible daily giving dot org bellygiving.org be a part of it if you're already a part of it share the message far and wide share the wealth of the merits family friends neighbor does visitation continue uh tefila as much as possible I want to thank you Doctor don't know if everything you do for college over the Jewish people for this amazing idea that you started and it's constitute there's such a concept but we want to thank all of our podcast players so many of them that are holding a Chata tutorial at any time which you mentioned a few times we give a shout out every single episode more or less to dailygiving.org so we have dailygiving.org over here at dollar day goes a very very far away and every single Tuesday night Kazakh tour talks with special guests 8 30 PM Eastern Standard Time kazak.org live uh suggestions for future guest speakers dedications are always welcome uh info kazak.org info c-h-a-z-a-q.org thank you very much