Tefillah - 031 Intent In Giving Tzedakah

The Intent In Giving Tzedakah

The “Shield of Avraham” –In Avraham Avinu’s Merit of Tzedakah

The end of the first blessing of Shemoneh Esrei concludes with "ברוך אתה ה', מגן אברהם"  “Blessed Are You, Hashem, Shield of Avraham.” Our Chazal reveal to us that the fact that Hashem is our Shield is not just the end of the first blessing of Shemoneh Esrei; it is a reality that applies to all the generations.

Hashem made a promise to Avraham that He will protect him, due to the merit of his great chessed and tzedakah which he did for the world. This carries over into all the future generations, throughout all the exiles we go through.

In particular, the power of tzedakah is enjoying much abundance in our generation; there is much tzedakah being given, much more than in the previous generations. This is not by chance. Our Chazal already revealed a long time ago that in the final generations, there will be more tzedakah given.

Let us reflect into what’s going on in our times, what we are missing, and what is needed to be added on.

Our Tzedakah Upholds The World

There are three pillars that hold up the world – Torah, Avodah (Korbonos) and Chessed (kindness). Chazal state that “Torah will be forgotten” in the future generations. Our Avodah as well, our Korbonos, are not here with us in exile. But our pillar of Chessed always remains. So although our Torah and our Avodah has weakened in the exile, our Chessed still remains strong.

When a person gives tzedakah or does a chessed for someone, even if he doesn’t have the best intentions, Chazal say that he still gets rewarded, because someone still received from him. Therefore, chessed and tzedakah doesn’t require as much holy intentions as our Torah and Avodah does. The reason for this is because chessed nourishes other people, whether we do it with intention or not. Thus, the merit of our chessed always remains strong.

It’s unbelievable how much chessed and tzedakah is going on in the world. If not for tzedakah, we couldn’t survive. The Torah and Tefillah going in the world are also unbelievable, but Torah and Tefillah require purity of heart in order to really protect us. But our tzedakah always remains pure, because it doesn’t require holy intentions; as long as we just give tzedakah to others. Tzedakah upholds the world even when we give it shelo lishmah (ulterior motivations).

The Problem That Results From Giving Tzedakah “Shelo Lishmah”

However, this creates a problem. If our entire tzedakah is always shelo lishmah, then it follows then that shelo lishmah is upholding the world. If our shelo lishmah is keeping the world alive – if we are only giving tzedakah because we want reward, such as parnassah and shidduchim, etc. – then our entire existence is being sustained by tzedakah that is being given shelo lishmah. If shelo lishmah is running the world, then our entire life is turning into shelo lishmah….

Again, to emphasize, the amount of tzedakah in the world is amazing. I do not mean chas v’shalom to invalidate this. But we have to know what our tzedakah is missing these days. If the reason in giving tzedakah is only to get rewarded, then the entire world is thriving on shelo lishmah, which is not a true kind of life.

This is also the root of the misguided thinking in today’s times. In the last 10 or 15 years, the world of tzedakah has grown amazingly, but, this takes its toll on our clarity of “things.”. When there is a lot of tzedakah, and it’s all being given shelo lishmah – and this is what is supporting the Torah – then there will be a lot of tzedakah in the world, but not much Torah. Our Torah learning loses its worth when it is being supported entirely by intentions that are shelo lishmah.

To give an example, much of the money going through the tzedakah organizations is not always being given out according to Halacha. People aren’t so careful with how they give out the tzedakah money.

Uncovering A ‘Spark of Lishmah’ In Our Acts

What should we do about this?

We can’t change the generation. But each of us, on our own personal level, can make the following reflection. Each of us has an ability to act either lishmah or shelo lishmah. Chazal say to act shelo lishmah and eventually we will arrive at lishmah; Rav Chaim Volozhiner explains that this is true only if we have a “spark of lishmah” even within our acts of shelo lishmah.

Therefore, practically speaking, every person should do the following exercise. Try giving just one shekel as lishmah, in every donation that you give. Give one shekel purely for the sake of giving tzedakah, and not because you want zechusim (merits), and not even for another person’s zechus. Don’t give it for any zechusim. Just give it purely for the sake of giving tzedakah.

We don’t mean to suggest that for every donation you give that you should give half of your donation lishmah; that is too much of an undertaking. That is only for rare individuals to practice. Instead, just give one shekel from the pile as lishmah.

The more you get used to this, the more you will weaken your shelo lishmah when you give tzedakah. You will begin to notice your intentions and become more aware of what it means to really give. You will feel uneasy at giving your tzedakah because you want to get rewarded for it – and you will naturally start giving it more with more intentions of lishmah. The more we give a little bit of our tzedakah to go for lishmah, the more we uncover the inner point of our heart - which is the power to act lishmah.

We should also try to take this point of lishmah and carry it over into our Torah learning as well, that we should try to uncover just one small spark of lishmah in all that we do.

May we all merit to “return with tzedakah” – with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days.