The Rebbe's Charity Campaign | Mivtza Tzedaka

welcome uh to another class in our series uh covering the the rebbe's me mitzvah campaigns i believe this is the third class in the series i think the last class was shabbos candles and we've been doing one class a month this is a special project of a lot of the five towns an awareness project each month highlighting another one of the mitzvah campaigns and this class or this lecture series is part of that project and of course the entire project is dedicated la zaika nishmas dinalea so this should be again this this class among all of the many things that are being done lilly nishmas uh dinalea should be in in herschels and um not just the class but the purpose of the class when we're studying about mitzvos is to actually follow through and do those mitzvahs so when you're doing these mitzvahs please have in mind uh again that this is okay so tadaka the mitzvah of tadaka i think we called this lecture the quintessential mitzvah why because i like the word quintessential it's a fancy word and how often do i get a chance to use it but what does quintessential mean quintessential means the the mitzvah par excellence right um if you like french or it means the how else might you say it um the archetypical mitzvah all right it's a lot of fancy words but what we're trying to say is basically if you had to pick one mitzvah that's the most mitzvahi mitzvah of all the mitzvahs this would be it hands down no no question and and why do i say that it's not you know not we it's not that we took a poll and we saw you know what did people think was the most quintessential mitzvah no this has a source this is from the jerusalem talmud from the the talmud you destroy me and uh it's pointed out in tanya that whenever the you shall me says ha mitzvah and it doesn't stipulate which one of the 613 mitzvahs it's talking about it means dhaka why because when you're talking about a mitzvah and you don't stipulate which mitzvah you mean you must be talking about the most mitzvah mitzvah of all the mitzvahs which is tsudaka so we're going to speak a little bit about tsdaka and we're gonna hopefully understand why it is the quintessential but before we do i just want to talk about the campaign i want to talk about the the the tsudaka not the mitzvah but the myths of the campaign the the campaign of uh tsudaka began in tough shin lamedalet in the winter of la meddalet that means uh 73-74 which is the year i was born so this is but but i was born in the summer of 74. so this is like right before i was born and uh what was the idea the idea was to promote its daca dhaka specifically in the manner in which the rambam speaks about it in uh the the rambam speaks about in connection with pirkei vs about the idea of roivham isa there's an expression i said the preponderance of deed and and and what that means is that there's a certain advantage to a positive action that's done repeatedly um to the extent that let's say you had the opportunity to give tadaka in a lump sum or to take that same amount now provided that the recipient didn't need it right away obviously if the recipient needs it right away then the best thing is give them what they need now but let's say that that's not a factor and it's just a choice between giving a lump sum once or or giving repeated donations on a recurring basis on a a on a regular basis that would in the end equal the same lump sum so which would be better the former or the latter the latter why because that's the idea of raj hamas the preponderance of deet so the idea is to not just give tzadaka but to become a tzdka giver so it's not just the amount that's given but it's the person giving becomes accustomed to the giving and this has a tremendous effect on the person and in in the same vein that ebb spoke about children being trained in this manner that that children in in the in you know king solomon the wisest of all men told us that when you train a child according to his way when you uh work with the child and and and figure out how to get them to um actually absorb an idea and and implement it and make it their second nature then even when they grow old they won't depart from it what that means is that it's not just that we want to get we want to get children to do the myths for once no we want to train them in the mitzvah so it becomes habitual they become accustomed to tsudaka as a part of their routine and to that uh toward that end the that ever very much uh promoted that children should have their own tadaka pushka in their room and that children should be given money for the purpose of being able to have their own money so that they can give dhaka from their own funds you know chanukah is coming up and the rabbis spoke amazing things about chanukah gelt about the power of giving guilt literal money not the chocolate coin guilt but giving giving children money on hanukkah and one of the reasons that giving money and hanukkah is so powerful is because it allows children the gives children the the opportunity to to give to dhaka when they have money then they can give to dukkha in fact uh that ever speaks about it uh as sort of like the antithesis of hellenism because um hellenism their big problem was they were they were materialists and they wanted to hellenize us and make us materialists and that's why they were very into physical fitness for its own sake i say for its own sake because there's nothing wrong with being healthy in fact that ambulance says being healthy is part of aveda's hashem because it enables you to serve hashem but to just be healthy for its own sake to worship the body for its own sake obviously is not a jewish value it's antithetical to jewish values and so too uh monetary possessions or being wealthy for its own sake is is is antithetical to to to jewish values but the hellenists were very into that and so in order to reject that and to show that we won the war that that we we won this this war against hellenization and we're here to tell the tale so what do we do to reject materialism we we give our children money and show that money is a spiritual thing think about you know especially at this time of year the consumer culture and how people give children their gifts and you know the the gifts becomes like uh it becomes a whole the gift giving becomes like a whole focus unto itself and you know as opposed to a gift where a child plays with it and breaks it and throws it out and you know maybe you had fun with it for a week you give the child money and you're empowering the child to have a teachable moment you know the child actually has to think okay what's mice or how do you calculate my si or maybe i'll give claimish i'll give a fifth not a tenth and uh where am i going to give it and how do i give it and so the entire thing becomes instead of just this passive thing of getting a gift and you know playing with it till it breaks it becomes a real educational experience which by the way that evo used to point out very often that hanukkah is the same word as which means dedication like dedic rededicating the temple after it was defiled by the greeks but also means education because education means the dedication you're taking a child and you are setting them up for life you're dedicating them to the proper path so one of the main ways that we celebrate hanukkah in a manner of genoch is through hanukkah gelt giving the children money so that they can give to dukkha okay um i spoke a little bit about the the pushka i mentioned that ebba mentioned you know wanted children to have a pushka in their own in their own room um the push is not just for children no not at all uh and i want to talk a little bit about the pushka pushka is a funny word you know it's a but how do you translate fushka you know it's like a canister that's that sounds even weirder you know uh container so we just so we just say pushkit anyways but it's very interesting what are the origins of this dhaka pushka do you know the history historically like where does it come from the the the whole uh the advent of the dhaka pushka it's actually it's very very interesting um and it's connected to what we're talking about before about giving dhaka regularly as a as as part of your ret as part of your routine so becomes um you know a a habit um the tzedakah pushka actually was innovated by the mithlereb the son of the al-tadab the second ab of uh and that's because the al-taraba had started a fund called kelo khabad which was to support the hasidic aliyah there were a group of siddhim from eastern europe who moved to eretz israel to the holy land in the late 1700s and the al-taraba took it upon himself to raise funds for these jews because there was no way of making a living in in the holy land and as poor as the jews in eastern europe were and whether they were very very poor um the jews in in the holy land were even poorer so the altareba would raise funds call for a for an organization called kailua chabad in fact we'll talk about it in a few weeks on youtube the the the anniversary of the redemption uh the release from prison of the altar but the altareb's imprisonment at least um you know we know that it was also it coincided with a uh kit right there was a there was an accusation in the heavenly court but at least down here the way it transpired in the terrestrial realm was uh he was being charged with funding sending funds to the enemy and how did they how did they make such a case how did the uh the enemies of the altar make such a case they showed that he was sending money to ottoman turkey because the holy land was under the ottoman turkish empire at that time so if he was raising funds and sending it to herzegov so they were showing that the altareba was sending funds to the enemy obviously that wasn't what he was doing he was sending funds to the jews who were living under ottoman turkish rule in the holy land the point is that raising funds for chabad is something that is intertwined with the you know some of the the the most important uh events in in in in chabad history um and even after his release the al trebba continued raising funds for carlo chabad and and right now in krita's you know the in the gerusa kurdish many of the letters are fundraising letters are essentially letters that are written to the jews of eastern europe encouraging them that even though they themselves are facing dire poverty not to stop giving money to chabad to support the jews living in in the holy land at any rate you may know that the the al-taraba passed away in 1813 and that when he passed away he was fleeing from napoleon from napoleon's advance uh into into russia we we call it over here in america the war of 1812. and in europe they called the napoleonic wars anyways the wars bankrupted uh europe and there was a global uh economic crisis so uh obviously a global economic crisis affects everybody especially the jews who were not in such a a great situation to begin with um so after the altar is passing there was a there was a severe shortage of funds the mit rabbit who assumed leadership after the author of his passing told his followers that even if you can only manage to put together a penny a day obviously i'm saying penny colloquially or the penny wasn't the currency a cup back or whatever it was that the the smallest currency that they had um even if you can only put together the smallest amount a day it's very important to continue to give on a regular basis and therefore they had the the pushkas and they would put even you know a tiny amount every day into the pushka and then the collectors from kerala khabad would come around um you know once a year twice a year whatever it was and collect the pushkit so the pushka was really instituted as a way that people who uh could only manage to give small amounts but wanted to do that on a regular basis so that they could they could do that and that the push kiss should be the the mithler ebba says the push should be in the house in fact the idea of the push being attached to the wall that comes from that same era and that ever spoke about this also uh that the push kiss should not just be in the house it should be attached to the house should be part of the wall you'll see this many people uh in the in the kitchen especially that ever spoke about when women cook that they should give tzedakah before cooking it'll bring blessing under the food also before shabbos candles interesting last our last class last month was the mitzvah of lighting shabbos candles before lighting shabbos candles is a as an especially auspicious time forgiving sadaka um when else should one give to dhaka before chakras the morning prayer before minika the afternoon prayer not before might have because it's at night but i'll tell you a funny story about that kabbalistically speaking you're not supposed to give it to duck at night although that ebba once told a story he said that he was in vienna i was was traveling through europe and he was in vienna and they'd ever put money in a pushka at night so somebody came over to him and criticized him and said don't don't you know according to kiswa arizal according to the kabbalah of isaac luria you're not supposed to give zaka at night so uh later on when the rebbe was in poland with his father-in-law with the frederick uh with his rabbit so that abbott told his his father-in-law you know i i put money in a push guy not in in in vienna and and and it was evening and somebody was critical and said i shouldn't do that and the videographer laughed and dismissed it and said the person who told you you shouldn't give stuck at night probably doesn't even get stuck in the day and it's interesting it's similar to that by the way uh that ebba mentioned at least on one occasion that i know of that people told the rabbit you know we heard that in seif siddim it says that if you're in debt you shouldn't give to dhaka because until you pay your creditors really why are you giving dhaka you know really that you should pay the creditors first they have they have first dibs before you give to dhaka so uh so so the rabbit said you know the people who bring up that that teaching from how come they didn't follow the safer siddhim uh regarding how they spent their money when they weren't in debt you know you were buying luxuries for yourself when you weren't in debt and that was okay now that you didn't check if the safer system said that that was that was proper conduct but now all of a sudden when you're looking for an excuse not to give stukka now you want to blame it on the safer sydney that you know that uh you shouldn't give uh tadaka until you paid your until you paid your debts right in other words you're you're uh you're picking and choosing when to be meticulous but uh it don't call it a from kite that you're avoiding giving to dhaka the real phromkite is gifts ducker so it's sort of similar to that story the guy was telling me you know kabbalistically don't get stuck at night okay you know what you want to be so careful but the real the real pious thing is to give this duck um at any rate so the the the idea of having the pushka in the home having it right there so that you're giving to dhaka it just becomes a regular a regular part of the rhythm of the home of your daily routine the deba also said to give stuck up before a medical procedure or a doctor's visit and if the person is staying in the hospital they should bring a pushka to the hospital i haven't spoke about giving to dhaka before a business um endeavor so that the business endeavor should be successful and and that's different than giving a plan you're making a pledge well if i make a certain amount of money at this business endeavor i'm going to give myself and we'll talk about myself in a minute by the way about the proportions how much to give a tenth the fifth uh but to to give todoka before the beforehand physically to take money and put it in the pushka um and also um when are other times of of giving sadaka there was another time i was thinking of um well just any old time throughout the day when you think of it but oh yeah i wanted to to mention also to have a push in the office a push should be in the office not just at home but in the office and another thing that ever spoke about employers that they should give a little bit extra money on payday with the understanding that this extra money is so that the employees can give to dhaka and that that's a very important thing to do and that's whether the employees are jewish or non-jewish because non-jews also have a mitzvah of giving to dhaka and in fact um one of the ways that we should promote uh the the chevy mitzvahs among you know the seven no had laws among non-jews is specifically by promoting dhaka the idea of of giving from one's wealth to those less fortunate and uh that this is something that applies to jews and andrews alike also by the way similar to the idea of an employer giving extra money in the paycheck so that the children can so that i'm giving away what i'm about to say so that the employees can give sadaka that ebba said that principals or school administrators should also give out money to the children so that the children can give to dhaka and that this should become like a regular thing that the the principal gives out money and then the children can take that money and they can put it in the pushka they're in school so again the the idea here is not just that the money gets given of course that's important and that's the bottom line but how it gets given that it becomes a routine and it habituates us it trains us it refines us because the giving becomes part of the the rhythm of our lives and it's in the home and it's in the office oh and another place that ebba said to have a push in the car yeah to have a tadaka pushka in the car so really wherever we are and and whatever we're doing becomes seamlessly interwoven with with those activities and elevates all of those activities and turns all of those activities into mitzvos now i said i wanted to talk a little bit about a tithe or a or a fifth so let's talk about that for a moment um there is obviously the the the idea of of myself which is which is a tithe in fact there's the idea of uh taser give a tai the tenth uh bishfield in order that you should become wealthy by playing with the dot the uh and the and the the sin it becomes a shin so the the word for ten can become the word for wealth so tasa give give my ser or a tenth or tithe in order sasha that you should become wealthy um and then that's that's a good mother it's actually a story about about but there's also an idea of means a fifth which is i mean obviously twice as much as as as a tenth and then i'll say just say but but don't give more than a fifth because that's considered extravagant and uh if you give more than a fifth then maybe you're going to become uh needy and then you know what's the point if you uh make yourself now you're you're going to become a recipient of tsudaka so generally speaking you know a tenth is is the regular amount and uh a fifth of of one's uh nat earnings uh uh is is considered you know mitzvah minimum you know the the choicest way to do the mitzvah however the alter writes about this in uh in tanya especially in uh or specifically in iguera sachova that that's just for the mitzvah dhaka but there's another reason we give to dhaka beyond the mitzvah and that is that in the times of the besamikdish people would give carbonace in order to atone for their sins and to reinstate their relationship with hashem um now we don't have the besamiktus so instead of the fat and blood of the sacrifice we give our own fat and blood through fasting however the alternative says we don't do well with fasting and it becomes counterproductive so when we fast it ends up affecting our ability to serve hashem in other ways so it's not worth it but we still need that atonement that the sacrifice would bring so how do we do it the altar never says dhaka because this dhaka is money you could have spent on food that would have replenished your fat and blood and now by giving the money away that is equivalent to a loss of your own fat and blood that you would have had through fasting except it's not going to give you a headache and we don't want to have a headache because then you're not going to be able to learn toyota you're not going to be able to do other mitzvahs and you're not going to be able to be nice to your family which is extremely important um so of course the person with the head it can be nice to his family and just just like it makes it harder but if you give stucca then you don't have any of those problems and you know you can eat your food and drink your coffee and and it still has the same effect like a corbin so if you're talking about just the mitzvah of giving dhaka as a mitzvah the amount is a tenth or at most uh a fifth but if you're talking about giving to dhaka because you need the atonement because you need something to bring bring about bring about spiritual healing you know and we all need spiritual healing because you know we've all done things that are less than perfect so then why is spiritual healing any were any less uh worthy uh than physical healing so if a person needed a physical healing and the money that it was going to cost for the doctor it was going to cost more than you know more than a fifth of his wealth but would he say well no i'm not going to spend the money on that you know a person who god forbid he was sick and he knew that something would heal him would he say no well i refuse i won't spend more than a fifth of my wealth of course he wouldn't he wouldn't make such a self-imposed limitation he would would spend whatever it takes so he could get healthy again and when you're healthy you make more money right but uh the same thing goes with it with a with a spiritual healing if a person needs uh an atonement so he wouldn't limit himself to saying oh well that's too much money no whatever whatever it costs he would spend so a fifth or a tenth or a fifth that's the mitzvotz dhaka but dhaka does other things as well which is like we're explaining it has the same effect as uh as fasting which has the same effect effect as as bringing a sacrifice and therefore you're getting uh value for your money so it's not just you're giving it away you're actually getting value and therefore bottom line the takeaway point here is that the limit of a tenth or even a fifth is not in place and you can spend whatever you feel you need to spend obviously speak to amash pia you know speak to uh you know your personal rabbinical guide and uh you know see what is what makes sense but even the limit of a tenth or a fifth is not uh is not binding uh when when you're giving dhaka as a way of of of spiritual healing okay so now let's let's talk a little bit about we spoke a lot about the effect that dhaka has on ourselves that it refines us and and we become givers and through the preponderance of action through the roe vermeisser and in the repeated action it uh makes us into more giving people more generous people it it it clears away the the ego which is resistant to generosity and uh you know we just train ourselves through repeated giving and it and it has a refining effect on ourselves let's now talk though about the macrocosm the effect on the world because you know there's the micro and there's the macro so let's talk about the effect that the giving has on the universe there there's a there's a concept that day let's document the greatest daca that it brings close to redemption what is this idea why do why does dhaka bring close to redemption so to try to convey a very deep concept uh very quickly the idea of meshiach and goula the messianic redemption is not something that happens in some other reality or some other uh state of being it's not heaven i mean that's that's one meaning of elim habba the world to come is the illuminati or gonadan paradise but when we talk about goula redemption we mean this world in fact that ever pointed out many times that gaulah is the word gaila with an aleph gayla means exile and goula is the exile with an aleph and aleph means the one means hashem so when there will be the revelation of the one in this world this world will be the place of uh of ultimate spirituality so we want to make this world holier than heaven now how do we do that how do we make this world holier than heaven through mitzvahs mitzvahs have a refining effect on the world so every time you do a mitzvah mitzvahs are physical actions use using physical objects you take something physical and you upgrade it from its default state which is spiritually neutral and you make it holy most of the physical world is spiritually neutral i mean there are things that are worse than neutral that are profane and those are the things that are off limits and and and jewish law prohibits them to us and those things we don't use those things hashem will pick up at the end says hashem i will remove the spirit of impurity that stuff but that's that's very little of the world um you know ham sandwiches and idols and stuff like that right so you leave it alone but most of the world is fair game it's neutral and it can be elevated so everything in the world that we use for a mitzvah becomes elevated so you know you drink the tea in order to i'm gonna drink my tea give the class on the computer you know through the you know uh the fios so all of that becomes part of a mitzvah so the t and the and the computer and the fios these are spiritually neutral on their own but now they're being used to do a mitzvah they all get elevated or you take the bricks and you build uh a shul or you build a a school and or you're elevating the the physical uh brick so you the classic example you take the cow and you take in from the cow you you you make hide and the hide becomes the parchment of the of the torah scroll or of the tv or of the mezuzah on your doorpost at any rate the point is that mitzvahs have a refining effect on the physical that physical objects can become become holy when they become a uh a an object of a mitzvah if we're if we are to define a mitzvah as an act which refines the physical and lifts it to spiritual uh qualities even while it retains its physical state right because it still remains a physical object but yet it becomes holy uh if we're defined if we are to define a mitzvah as as as as an act that has that effect well tzedakah is the mitzvah that has that effect most um most profoundly most impactfully because if you think about it when you earn money you put your energy into earning money and you get your energy from everything you know from your food and your drink and your and also from you know the home that you live in that you use to re-energize and your furniture and all your everything that you have goes into giving you the ability to go earn a living and then earning a living becomes this money and then you take that money and you turn it into a mitzvah so basically think about that when you've given sadaka everything that you have i'm talking about materially your own body and your possessions and and your comforts and everything that went into giving you the ability to go earn a living is now channeled into a mitzvah so that whole chain becomes uplifted and becomes holy so if a mitzvah is an act that has a refining effect on physical objects there's no mitzvah that has more of that effect than the mitzvot tsudaka and that's why tzedakah is called the mitzvah the mitzvah par excellence the quintessential mitzvah the archetypical mitzvah because dhaka has the most has the most wide-ranging effect on refining the physical all of the things that you have and everything you own everything that you use that goes into you being able to maintain yourself your clothing your your car your everything you know tell your accountant it's all a business expense right it's all a business expense it all goes into earning that living and now you earn that living and you take a piece of it off and you give it away and turn it into something holy you've elevated all of that so we see that tsudakka not only has a powerful effect in refining us but in refining the world and uh the more tzedakah we give the quicker we we lift up this world and that's why we say good day let's do everything greatest greatest tadaka for it brings redemption it's it's not like this random thing that oh give a lot of talk and hashem will reward you with redemption no it's a really uh obvious cause and effect outcome that goula is when the physical world is refined well what refines the physical world faster and more powerfully than taking the money that you earned with your hard work and turning that into a mitzvah that refines physicality real quickly and real powerfully so there's a very direct connection between seducka and and the ultimate perfection of this world and in that sense you know tzedakah is really uh you know you don't get you don't get better than dhaka if you think about it you know that ebb encouraged so many people to do mitzvahs and so many different mixes and of course you know this part this is seri this class is part of a series of of of bits for campaigns but if you think about that ever just when you picture that ever um encouraging people to do mitzvahs and actually deputizing them on the spot to become a schlier mitzvah what is the picture that that comes to mind the dollars that i would give sunday dollars there was a line every sunday and then after in the later years after after a secret that i would give dollars very often that it would give coins to children they would you know come into 770 and he would give coins to the children um and the whole idea of giving out that money what was the money you know whatever said this is making yue shleek mitzvah fort zadok and now obviously people would keep that dollar or coin they got from their because they had personal meaning but then they would give them that amount the equivalent or more you know preferably with a hisofa with with an addition they would give that to tsdaka so basically what was that ever constantly doing every time that ever met somebody was deputizing them you know tag you're it you're you're ashley mitzvah you are an emissary to do him it's which mitzvah it's dhaka so every time that ever was giving out a dollar that was the idea there is that was making you ashley mitzvah specifically the mitzvah dhaka so it's a powerful powerful mitzvah and and one that really has no limit and we can do it all the time anywhere the only time you can't do it is shabbos and yamcha and for the sake of you know making this class more complete let me mention that uh since we can't give its duck on chambers or yamcha one thing that ever mentioned is you should give uh double on on shabbos and ahead of yomtif so uh you know you make up for that day as well like lacha mishna you know like the month fell double on friday um yeah so that's the idea and uh let's make an effort to not just to give to dhaka but to become dhaka givers through training ourselves and our children to to engage in acts of tzedakah repeatedly and regularly have a push go within reach wherever you are at home at the office in your car so that you can just reach out and and give to dhaka and so that it becomes just a a regular part of of our lives and again i want to uh remind us that when we do so um let's have in mind that this act we are we are acting as as the hand of of the neshama and very soon through the stock that we give to to bring the redemption we should be reunited with her and with all of the nishamas who are awaiting their return to this world when this world will be perfected through our through our deeds chiefly through our through our acts of goodness and kindness arts dhaka thank you to everyone thank you for joining us