By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari
Shalom, in the Parasha we encounter the famous Pasuk:
״כי פתח תפתח את ידך לו והעבט תעבטנו די מחסורו אשר יחסר לו״
You shall surely open up your hand to him and give him whatever he is lacking.(Devarim 15,8)
The Talmud teaches: “The wicked Tornosrofus (the Roman governor of Israel after the destruction of the second temple), asked Rabbi Akiva: if your GD loves the poor so much, why does He himself not take care of them? Rabbi Akiva answered back: so that we should be saved from the judgment of Purgatory.”(Bava Batra 10a)
We need to understand the words of Rabbi Akiva: Why should the poor suffer in order to save us? Couldn’t HaShem give us a different Misva to save us?
Many answers are given to this question. דרכי מוסר offers an answer of the Elder of Kelm. Charity is actually different than other Misvot because it’s not just about giving; the goal is to train the person to come to love his fellow. That’s why this Misva would save him from purgatory. He adds that one who gives charity and doesn’t feel the pain and suffering of the recipient, and all he has in mind is the Misva of the Torah, he has yet to fulfill the Misva completely. Because the goal of the Misva of charity is to discipline the person to forget that this is a Misva and he should be giving by sharing the pain of the other, as if it’s his own pain “love your fellow like yourself “ literally your self.
How can one know what this level of thinking is? Everyone has a command to eat and drink in order to stay healthy. If he makes himself suffer by fasting and gets sick and weak, that would be a sin. Yet, when he eats, he is not doing this for the sake of the commandments of HaShem; he is eating because he is hungry. This should be the thought when helping the needy: help him because of his trouble which is your trouble and not just for the Misva!
The Talmud in Ketuvot 66b teaches us how Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakai the leader of the Jewish people at the time of the destruction of the second Temple saw the daughter of the famous Nakdimon Ben Gurion (one of the wealthiest Jews of that time) was rummaging through trash looking for food. When she realized that Rabban Yohanan was near, she wrapped herself up and asked the sage for support. When asked “what happened to your father’s wealth “she replied: “Isn’t there a known saying in Yerushalayim ‘To preserve your wealth you need to diminish’ “ Rashi explains “One who wants his wealth to remain intact, he needs to diminish it by giving it away to charity always…”
The Talmud then asks: it was known to all the Nakdimon gave charity in abundance, in fact, when he left his home to the study hall, they would spread expensive fabric on the ground so he could walk on it and the needy would come and take the fabric!!!
The Talmud offers answers: either he did it for his own honor or he didn’t give in ratio of his wealth. Tha Maharsha asked, we have learned elsewhere that even if a person gives charity with a personal intention, he still gets rewarded for it!!
The Sefer דרכי מוסר offers an explanation that if a person gives with ulterior motives, he has done a Misva, but that’s not Sedaka. Because Sedaka is only if one gives through a feeling of the other person’s pain and suffering. There is reward for acts similar to Sedaka, but the special shield of protection is only in perfect Sedaka and that’s why Nakdimon got rewarded for all his good acts, however it didn’t preserve his wealth.
Shabbat Shalom