CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #153 Rabbi Akiva Homnick - The Importance of Giving

yes you could take out a $10 bill and give him or you could think for a moment and say what would I want somebody to do for me if God forbid that was me in his shoes you don't want a $10 bill you want somebody to really do what they can do feel their pain and then your donation will be a very different donation that's even the case when and if you can't afford to give more than 10 it's the war that goes with it it's the sign of encouragement we can't give to everybody it's impossible what you could give to everybody is [Music] the and welcome to Torah talks kazak's Tuesday night program with special guests we have with us RAB AK all the way from the Lower East Side welcome Rabbi how you doing thank you very much for having me it's always a pleasure to see you and be at the kazak headquarters and we're going to be speaking about the importance of giving but before we get to that topic we get a little bit of background about yourself and the amazing and great work you're involved with so I am a t of on the lower side mtj mtj I learned byav Feinstein z uh I currently live there and I have a couple organizations one specifically p helping those who are incarcerated all across the United States uh I also have a chaplaincy related organization uh helping people with uh I guess we could call it entrylevel parosa uh and opening up different roads for them to grow in that industry amazing amazing Rabbi and I know you're involved with many other causes and organizations and and good things and uh you know the topic of importance of giving is that many people naturally they're they're takers they want to take from themselves how do they shift from being a taker to becoming a giver to giving to others it it's very important to always put yourself in somebody else's shoes you see somebody uh somebody approaches you they say oh they need money so yes you could take out a $10 bill and give him or you could think for a moment and say what would I want somebody to do for me if God forbid that was me in his shoes I'm collecting from my kids wedding or I'm collecting from my kids Bar Mitzvah you don't want a $10 bill you want somebody to really do what they can do put yourself in their shoes feel their pain and then your donation will be a very different donation and by the way it that's even the case when and if you can't afford to give more than 10 it's the warmth that goes with it it's the it's the it's the it's the it's the sign of encouragement it's the that you give you know I have I get call calls like everybody else does we can't give to everybody it's impossible but what you could give to everybody is the and I personally I try to give to everybody even if it's a small amount but that's also part of you know yes would we all love a $500 donor 100% we simply can't do it but what we can do and what we have to do is to give the give the inspiration the people to uplift the people who are behind that organization uh to give and to do more amazing so when it comes to giving the first thing that people come to mind is what a financial contribution oh let me give the $10 $100 $1,000 whatever amount of person can give but as we know there's much more than just giving financially there's whether it's time whether it's ideas whether it's advice whether it's their connections what could the rabbi tell us about not just giving financially but giving in other ways so of course there's the famous ofstein that he he always said over that the it's important that the same way we have a to give 10% of our income we have an obligation to give 10% of our time yes famous uh you know and I always say if you do simple math an average person is up at least 15 hours a day whether we start our day at uh 78 in the morning we're going to bed 10 11:00 at night uh we we we're all in debt for a lot of time that we owe and we can use everyone's time uh for for our great organizations whether it's here at kazak whether it's who's having the now I mean who hasn't benefited from hatala I have quite a few stories my number them I I fortunately uh or unfortunately my parents alom were not of the healthiest I can't count on one hand how many times hatala was there for us sure sure uh so any of us who have kids of course our kids keep atala in business with some sort of trauma along the way whether it's a bad break uh some major fall off a bike or anything else we had a story uh that they actually made a video out of it and it holding for where unfortunately our oldest boy our son when he was younger he pulled the wire someway somehow he he pulled the wire of the hot water ear and it went on him andella came right away and it was mama Cornel Hospital the whole the whole sh and thank God today he's fine everything's good but we have a tremendous depth of gratitude the great work of atalah yeah and and all the local yeshivas I mean we all know all these organizations they make calans they make different uh campaigns campaigns and and they all need volunteers to get there and make phone calls yeah why is it that when you go to Yeshiva or any organization you have 15 people we should have 150 you take any Yesa they have thousands of alumni yeah it's true and the the parents and the children and neighbor children by way the kids learn from the parents so if the parents don't do it the kids don't do it uh as a general rule so you know yes just because you parents don't do it doesn't make it right for you not doing it but to the parents who don't do it the you have to lead by example 100% I actually thought of this cute idea that uh that that what does that mean that the the actions of the parents uh you know the the word for a father in Hebrew is Aba and for mother is IMA it's a pound backwards and forwards the way parents are to children that's the way the children are going to be the parents the way the parents Act is the way the children are going to act so when the parents are active in different causes and they're helping out and they're giving of their time of their energies whatever it may be it's going to definitely trickle down to the children and it could really be a family fun activity you know and uh it could keep the kids busy and they could do good things kazak has you know an upcoming uh tournament also has a fundraiser and we definitely need uh volunteers you know so we have so many things to do I I you know when PE people come over to me they tell me you know I I I have uh so much time in my hand I'm like wow give me give me some of that time please yeah we could definitely use but we have to utilize our time like the rabbi is saying like said it was a that he said that 10% of people's time correct 10% of people's time so how could what if a person doesn't have it in him how how what would you tell them to encourage him to to to to not you know oh he just take the $500 leave me alone is is that the right approach Rabbi is there anything you can do to encourage others with regards to the importance of not only just giving financially but to is absolutely again uh like I said before it's the importance of putting yourself in in the shoes of that organization of that person of you know we all have our project that were a biggest supporter of than others whether it's our local sh School mikah whatever it may be you know we have to truly give and be passionate about it it's it's incredibly important and uh we have to we have to step up and the same way you want people to step up for your cause uh whether it's financially or to share your to share your link or in whatever ways they can uh it's important that you do it for the organizations that right now you're not so involved in but one day you'll make time and get involved in all of them 100% you know on a personal level everyone knows I'm involved with kazak besides for kazak there's obviously the sh and shs that I'm involved with and there's the yes that my children go to and there's that my children don't even go to but I'm still involved because at the end of the day whatever we could be involved with and help people that's the main thing organizations Galore there's probably dozens and hundreds of organizations that we're involved with and helping out and we like to work together and the idea is very simple we're all working for the same boss at the end of the day one and another name another organization another yes another sh it's all is at the end days to do more and I always say that M hasn't come yet the G the Final Redemption so the question is if we just continue with status quo doing whatever we do maybe that's not going to do the job what do we have to do we have to do more to take things to the next level you have to push ourselves it's it's not easy we come home if the 8 10 hour day many of us commute an hour or close to an hour to and from work we come home we're exhausted but you know what we still have an obligation to give obviously you know to those who are going out to learn or to have their other commitments you're committed there too but it doesn't mean that on Sunday you can't you know yes it's family time to a certain extent but part of doing it is doing it with your family show your kids lead by example yes we all need our downtime and our relax ation for sure but there has to be that 10% of our time is giving back to our organizations to our Meers these are people that are there for us day in and day out why are we not there for them day in and day out it's it's a question that nobody has given me a good answer to and I look forward for that day to hear a good answer where I hear the all the organizations have hundreds of more volunteers lining up to help with the Yeshiva dinas with their campaigns it's an important drive that we have to get behind it's something that's always bothered me I've had conversations with many RAB and they like AA you got my endorsement but at the end of the day nobody very few step up to the plate so they're all quick to write the check which is very nice and we encourage that too but those who can write the check please continue to write and if you can write more continue to send more but for those who write the check even you also have an obligation to give of your time so it's expected of all of us it's required of all of us and we need to do it there's a famous quote uh you want to get something done you should ask the busy man so as busy as people are uh if they find it to be important with which it is they will figure out a way some way somehow to make the time to hop out so again like the rabbi saying so beautifully everybody can everybody should a person wants to there is a will there's a way they'll figure out a way to do so powerful words so we have we have a custom which is a final message for our broad audience I would say my final message here is to uh really to again get involved be passionate uh remember that uh as far as the financial side of things it's important to always for those who have a direct deposit option from our corporations it's your style of giving also depends on how you give it there are people who give $360 to an organization and they feel like they gave the world I'm talking obviously wealthy people who can afford to give a lot more but they're giving it like that because the money goes all into one account they don't have it separate the people who have 10% of their net income going into a separate account not a penny more and not a penny less and again for those who could do pennies more or dollars more uh to you and please do so but the separate account idea is an important idea I could I don't like to admit this but I myself used to be uh very bad at giving uh and it was actually the idea of my re and rashash David Feinstein that I make a separate account and I did that at that point I was working for a company that had direct deposit uh going back 10 15 years ago and I did that and ever since you just look at that account this kades it's not your money you're God's messenger and now there are many great causes so I always say whoever calls me is the lucky one you may call me and I have $1,000 Mya for you uh you may call me and I have $54 my but you should know that it's not about what I give financially it's about the that I try to give everybody who calls me whether it's there dozens the yes the we're living now in a turbulent time and bizarre times all across the world we need we need protection now more than ever uh we need to enhance our giving uh to to there's no shortage of those organizations of course the organizations like kazak who also spread T we had kazak they're having a campaign next week I believe Rabbi told me uh let's get involved reach out see how we could support the organization they great work and with that we'll be [Music] the importance of giving you inspired me as much as I'm giving I want to give more and we have to remember the word for giving in Hebrew is Natan it's a palum also backwards and for it's same spelling in Hebrew and English interesting enough because when we give in essence you're going to get so much more people think oh I'm giving all my time I'm giving my money I'm losing no that at all you're getting so much blessings so much goodness and so much you think you're doing a favor by giving to those that are in need it's saving from Death as much as possible everybody should be giving the importance of giving want to think behind the camera media direct the entire amazing kazak team and staff and volunteers and board members and supporters we're forever grateful we want to thank our friends at Daily giving a doar day goes a very far away we want to thank our friends at Torah anytime uh that they're also having a campaign around this time right now and we encourage of them to support their great calls as well and uh all the different podcast players and different websites that are hosting our Torah talks kazak Torah talks we really appreciate the amount of feedback is amazing please continue sending feedback it gives a lot of like the rabbi spoke about gives a little strength for us to continue over 150 episodes an hour beautiful beautiful words thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh