1st Halacha of Pesach- Giving to the Poor

Shlomo Carlebach in his book לב השמים says that giving donations for Matzah and food for the seder is the 1st halacha of Pesach, and reminds us that we begin the seder all who are hungry come and eat. He says that Pesach is the Chag of Avraham Avinu, and that Avrahams unique characteristic is that he always wants us to understand how much Hashem loves us. He says that the more Tzedakah you give before Pesach the larger your vessel will be to receive the light of Pesach. This giving he says creates an echo in Shamayim, and allows Hashem's light to flow easier. On Pesach Hashem wants to transmit to us such Kedusha, merely as a gift that is not even dependent on our merits. In fact we should remember that redemption itself was a gift. We should hold all this inside of us when giving tzedakah.

On this Chag of Pesach we need to emualte our father in Heaven who gives with us with pure Chesed, knowing no limits. We need to see no differences between ourselves and our fellow Jews, that "our money" is theirs, and their tefilah is ours. The more we can see that the "poor schlepper's" prayers are really holding up Am Yisrael we will see the true Emet in the world, and merit our Redemption quicker. We need to give Tzedakah while holding the space inside that Hashem loves us so much and that we are passing on his money and blessings to our fellow Jew. May we be blessed that our Tzedakah like Avraham Avinu should know no boundaries.

* To see a beautiful video about a Jerusalem resident who is living by his tefilot alone and see a list of worthy charities visit Mystical Paths

Parshat Trumah - Tzedakah's eternal gift

Teaching taken from Shira Smiles' lecture: A Give and Take Relationship, Parshat Trumah. Video available at Na'aleh

Parsha Terumah begins: Hashem spoke to Moses saying - Speak to the children of Israel and let them take for Me a portion from every man whose heart motivates him.

The question the commentators ask is why take for me when Am Yisrael is supposed to be giving to the mishkan.

A gemara is sighted where a man whose family has saved money for many generations during a famine decides to split it up amongst the people. He is questioned "your family have saved for generations how could you just spend it all like this"

He answers"My forefathers stored it down here. I will store it up in heaven" "I have stored it in a place where no one can touch it" "They stored it for this world I have stored it for the next."בגמרה( ב''ב יא

This is the answer to why it says take and not give. The money that we give to charity is the only money that is really ours because it (or in the parsha the mishkan) is eternal. NO OTHER MONEY BELONGS TO YOU. In addition the poor person is giving us much more than we are to them.

May we be blessed to always have our hand open. To give the 10-20% of our maaser with complete joy, remembering our money is just on loan from Hashem. Like in the story when times our rough like today our tzedakah should not decrease but increase. Only our chesed truly effects both this world and the next.