Friday, Kislev 6, 5778 / November 24, 2017
Dear friends, Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes for my father, Menachem Mendel ben Chaya Bracha. He is still in ICU. We hope and pray that all our prayers for him will be fulfilled and that he have a Refuah Shleimah. Amen.
In this week’s Parsha, Vayeitzei, after Yaakov wakes up from his peaceful sleep and wonderful dream in which G-d promises to protect him, he makes the following vow, "If G-d will be with me and will protect me in this way which I am going; He will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear… From everything which You will give me, I will give one tenth to You".
Yaakov was penniless at this time, but he makes a promise that when G-d will help him, the first thing he will do is give a tenth to charity to help others. Tzedaka-charity is a very important mitzvah and has very special powers. Here are some Talmudic teachings about the importance of charity:
Rabbi Assi said, "The mitzvah of Tzedakah is compared to all other mitzvot put together".
Rabbi Chanina said, "Why is Tzedakah compared to a garment? Just like a garment is made up of many threads, so too, each coin and coin given to charity adds up to a great amount."
Rabbi Dustai ben Reb Yanai explains the greatness of Tzedakah, "When a simple person presents a gift to a great king, the gift may or may not be accepted by the king. Even if it is accepted, one is still not guaranteed the privilege of meeting the king. But the Holy One blessed be He acts differently. One who gives even a small coin to a poor person acquires great merit and enters in the presence of G-d. As is written in Psalms (17:15), "Through Tzedakah, I will see Your face!".
Rabbi Yishmael explains the benefit of giving charity, “Whoever trims their possessions and gives to charity will be saved from harsh judgment in the after-life. This is similar to two sheep that were crossing the water. One was sheared and one was not. The sheared lamb will easily pass through the water, while the other one will be weighed down by all the water that was absorbed in its wool."
In Isaiah (chapter 10) the prophet uses the expression, "plant your charity." Our sages explain planting charity, as follows: If a person walks down the street and loses $100, he/she will, naturally, agonize over it. Even if the person later finds $200, he/she may think, "If I didn't lose the $100, I would now have $300!"
However, when a person loses the contents of a sack of wheat while walking through his field and next year finds his field full of freshly grown wheat it would be foolish to think that had he not lost the sack of wheat last year he would have more now! For everything he has now is a direct result of the "loss" which he had. This is the way to view the mitzvah of charity – It is like planting."
SHABBAT SHALOM
Montrealcandle lighting time: 4:13 / Shabbat ends: 5:17