{"id":43651,"date":"2018-11-11T00:46:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T22:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43651"},"modified":"2022-06-02T13:56:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T10:56:46","slug":"jewish-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jewish-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[542,354],"acf":{"old_id":"43651","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"86","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Generosity should be part of our DNA","content":"

God told Moses to ask people to make contributions. Some brought gold, some silver, some copper. Some gave wool or linen or animal skins. Others contributed acacia wood, oil, spices or incense. Some gave precious stones for the High Priest\u2019s breastplate.What was remarkable was the willingness with which they gave.<\/span><\/p>\n

The people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, \u201cThe people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: \u201cNo man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.\u201d And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work (Ex. 36: 3-7).<\/span><\/p>\n

One parsha earlier we read a very different story: the demand for a Golden Calf. Aaron, according to the most favoured explanation, realised that he could not stop the people directly by refusing their request, so he adopted a stalling manoeuvre. He did something with the intention of slowing them down, trusting that if the work could be delayed, Moses would reappear. This is what he said: Aaron answered them, \u201cTake off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me\u201d (32: 2).<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the midrash he thought this would create arguments within families and the project would be delayed. Instead, immediately thereafter, without a pause, we read: \u201cSo all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron\u201d (32: 3). Again the same generosity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, these two projects could not be less alike. But the common factor was generosity. Jews may not always make the right choices in what they give to, but they give.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the twelfth century, Moses Maimonides twice interrupts his customary calm legal prose in his law code, the Mishneh Torah, to make the same point. Speaking about tzedakah, charity, he says: \u201cWe have never seen or heard about a Jewish community which does not have a charity fund\u201d (Laws of Gifts to the Poor, 9:3).<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that a Jewish community could exist without a network of charitable provisions was almost inconceivable. Maimonides is here saying more than that Jews give charity. He is saying that a charitable disposition is written into Jewish genes, part of our inherited DNA. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From <\/span>On Jewish Character, Covenant & Conversation, Pekudei <\/span>(5771)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":105401,"id":105401,"title":"-6298975fe3d4a--6298975fe3d68ex36-dna heart giving.png","filename":"6298975fe3d4a-6298975fe3d68ex36-dna-heart-giving.png.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6298975fe3d4a-6298975fe3d68ex36-dna-heart-giving.png.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jewish-giving\/6298975fe3d4a-6298975fe3d68ex36-dna-heart-giving-png\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6298975fe3d4a-6298975fe3d68ex36-dna-heart-giving-png","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":43651,"date":"2022-06-02 10:56:31","modified":"2022-06-02 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