Avot326

נושא: Avot

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

There are four characteristics [observable] in those who offer charity. [There is one who] gives but does not want others to give; [such a person] is niggardly towards the property of others. [There is another who wishes that] others give but that he not give; [such a person is] niggardly towards his own property. [There is another who wishes that] he should give and others [also] give; [such a person is] a saint. [There is another who wishes that] neither he nor others give; [such a person is] wicked.

1:
Clearly, our present mishnah continues the series which is based on the number four and describes four types. The present mishnah describes four types of people in connection with the giving of charity.

2:
The Torah [Deuteronomy 15:7-11] makes the giving of charity a religious duty, a mitzvah:

If there be a needy person among you, one of your brethren in any of your settlements in the land that your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy brother. Rather, you must open your hand and give him sufficient for whatever he needs… Give to him readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings. For there will never cease to be needy ones
in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land.

The sages interpreted the wording of the Torah in a very precise manner. In a baraita [Ketubot 67b] we read:

Give him sufficient for whatever he needs – You are required to sustain him [to the extent of his immediate need] but you are not required to enrich him [more than his immediate need]. Whatever he needs – even a horse to ride on and a servant to run before him.

This refers to a rich man who has suddenly become impoverished. The baraita is quoted in the context of marriage: if a once-rich man is marrying he should be assisted so that he can marry with all the pomp that he was once used to because, in view of his dignity, this is his present need. The baraita continues:

It is said that Hillel, in the case of rich people who had become impoverished, used to pay for a horse for them to ride on and a servant to run before them. On one occasion he could not find a servant to run before such a person so he himself ran before him for three miles.

I quote this baraita to give some indication of the religious and ethical importance that the sages applied to the mitzvah of charity and the preservation of human dignity.

3:
Rambam, in his great halakhic code, Mishneh Torah [Matnot Aniyyim 7:1-2] codifies the mitzvah as follows:

It is a positive commandment to give charity to the poor according to the poor man's needs, if the donor has the means to do so … Anyone who sees a poor person begging and ignores him and does not give him charity is contravening a negative commandment.

Then, in halakhah 5 of that same chapter, Rambam states:

If a poor man comes asking for his needs and the donor does not have sufficient [to meet those needs] he should give what he can. How much [should he give]? – up to 20 percent of his property is the ideal way of performing the mitzvah; an average person would give up to 10 percent; less than that would be niggardly. But a person should never give less that one third of a shekel each year; anyone who gives less than that has not fulfilled the mitzvah. Even a poverty-stricken person who is sustained by charity must give charity to someone else.

4:
For the sake of clarity let us also note that Rambam adds [Halakhah 7]:

We give charity to poverty-stricken non-Jews together with the Jewish poor… A poor person who goes round knocking on doors does not need to be given a large sum; we give such a person a small gift. But it is forbidden to refuse to give anything to a poor person who begs…

To be continued.

In Avot 324 I used the expression "one has lost on the swings what one has gained on the roundabouts". Both Bob Zimring and Judith May ask me to explain the origin of the expression and what it refers to.

I respond:

I thought that this was a general expression, but clearly I am wrong. It is an expression that I learned from my father z"l. But he did not invent it because when I Googled the expression I found 855 instances! It is an expression that derives from children in a playground which has both swings and roundabouts. A roundabout is a merry-go-round. In one dictionary I find 'swing' defined as "a seat suspended from above by means of a loop of rope or between ropes or rods, on which one may sit and swing to and fro for recreation." The meaning of the expression is that what one gains in one place or activity one loses with another, thus there is neither gain nor loss – where one would have hoped for gain.

The next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Tuesday 12th February 2008.

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