I’m sure everyone has this experience at least once. A very religious looking Jewish man flags you down on the street or knocks on your door and says he came from Israel to collect tzedaka because his mother’s in the hospital, his daughter’s getting married, and he can’t afford to feed his other three kids.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that these kinds of people who ask for help are all fakes, and I understand and value the mitzvah of tzedaka as much as the next guy. The problem I have is that I’ve effectively sworn off of giving cash to panhandlers and even taking my wallet out of my pocket in public places because I’ve gotten burnt too many times in the past by letting my emotions get the better of me. But I still can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt when a fellow Jew asks for help and I turn them down because of my own past experiences.
Then of course there are the actual fakes that ruin it for everyone else. The kinds that you give a dollar to and then they have the chutzpah to ask for five, or the ones that try to guilt you into giving even after you’ve turned them down. And then there’s the question of why he spent $1000 on a plane ticket just to collect money in the US if he’s in such financial distress?
So the question is: What is your perspective on giving (or not giving) tzedaka to random people who ask, and how do you reconcile it with our obligation to be charitable with our fellow Jews?
submitted by /u/s-riddler
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Source: Reditt
