Tzedaka ,Tzedaka, Tzedaka! - Rabbi Tzvi Sytner

15 years ago i was living in israel and every day when i would go to school this tadaka collectors would come to shul and they would go collecting now one day services had just ended i was packing up all my stuff and this pious old man with a long white beard comes to me he puts out his hand he says sadaka tsudaka so i put my hand in my pocket and i pull out a handful of change and i started sifting through the coins and i picked out a few skull him and i put the rest back in my pocket and as i gave him the skull and this old wise man said something to me that i'll never forget he said you think the money you gave away you've lost and the money in your pocket that is your money but really the money in your pocket you never know what's going to happen to it but the money you gave away that's your real money because that money has changed you you know our sages teach us something so counter-intuitive about seductive think about this scenario if you had a thousand dollars to give is it better to give one dollar to a thousand people so that you can help lots of people or give a thousand dollars to one person so you can actually help someone in a significant way you'd think that it's better to give it all to one person so you can make a big difference in their lives but really it's more important to give one dollar to a thousand people because when we keep giving the act of giving changes us and makes a big difference in our lives meaning the true focus is less about what you give and more about who you become through giving you know think about this if god wanted he could have created a world where everyone has everything they need but he wants a world where we're all lacking in some way so that we can help each other and that we can refine ourselves in that process our job in life isn't to accomplish to fix and to solve everything that's god's job our job is to try and to become more patient and kind and compassionate while trying and really this applies to every single aspect of life right life is not about the end result as much as about our growth in the process it's not about how much you do or how much how much money you make but rather who you become in that process our work think about work work is not about how many customers you have but rather how you treat each customer parenting parenting is isn't about whether your kids become exactly who you think they should be but rather how patient loving and caring you become in the process so if you ever find yourself questioning the impact of the effort remember that your effort already made an impact on you