Tzedaka MaAser Chomesh Explanation of How To Give & Whats The Difference?

0:14Where the mitzvah of ma'aser is 10%, but the Gaon Mi'Vilna says that 20% is what you're supposed to give if you want to become rich in this life. So where's the source? In the Shulchan Aruch, in Yoreh De'ah, in Halachot Tzedakah, in Siman 249, Seif Aleph. in Yoreh De'ah, in Hilchot Tzedakah, in Siman 249, Se'if Aleph. 249:1. Rabbi Yosef Karo says, yes, a person must give based on what he sees that's needed. But if... He sees that the need is even higher than what he can give. He should give at least 20% of his income, chomeish. Now, further, the...

1:33This is a letter that he wrote to his wife when he made a trip to Israel. He didn't know if he was going to be able to come back. In those days, it wasn't like planes and automobiles. If you made a trip, that's a long trip. Very likely, you didn't make it. So the Gaon of Vilna wrote a famous letter to his wife. And he gave her instructions in essence on what to do with the household, what to do with the kids, and so on and so forth. And he told her specifically that she should give 20% of whatever income. whatever income she has from all the things that they had over there, because if she gives less than that, she is committing several of the lav sins, which are the worst sins in the Torah, by giving less than 20%. And then in the sefer called Keser Rosh,

2:42In Ot 1.23, Rabbi Chaim Volozhin writes in the name of the Gaon of Vilna that whoever gives ma'aser is not going to lose his money, but whoever gives chomesh will become rich. This is in the Keter Rosh in Ot 123. So here we see that when it comes to giving tzedakah, there's two separate mitzvot. There's tzedakah and there's ma'aser. Maaser is based on your income. Tzedakah is based on your assets, what you already have. Maaser, you give 10% of your gross income. You make $1,000 a week, you give $100. You make $500 a week, you give $50, and so on and so forth. Now, a lot of people say, "Yeah, but if I have a lot of expenses, if I give 10% of it, I'm not going to be able to survive. I'm not going to be able to pay my expenses." That's where the Emuna test comes from. You know, some people say, "Yeah, why don't you just give 10% of the..."

3:46the net, once you get 10 percent net, if you give 10 percent of the net for most people, it's going to end up being like two dollars because you end up spending so much of your money. You make five hundred dollars a week, and by the time you pay your basic bills for that week, maybe you have ten dollars left. So your amount is going to be ten percent of ten dollars, which is a dollar. Do you think that's real? So, obviously, it has to be of the gross, and that means it's an emunah test. So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Levu alai v'Ani porea." The Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit, I believe, says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to borrow money to fulfill My mitzvot, like Shabbat and Chagim, where you have to spend extra money for those mitzvot. For tzedakah, He says to borrow money to do My mitzvot, and I'll pay it all. You borrow on My name, He says, "Levu alai v'Ani porea." So when a person gives, passes the test of giving the Ma'aser or the Chomesh, which is 20%, based on their gross, HaKadosh Baruch Hu promises them that it's going to work out. It may not work out with the first check, second check, third check, or even tenth check.

5:00But ultimately, for sure, it's going to work out. I've seen it with my own eyes. Now, that's 10%. Anyone who gives 10%, the Gaon of Vilna says, the Torah promises us that that person will be protected, meaning even if there's a great depression in the world, financial collapse, they'll be protected. They're not going to go into the same situation as everybody else. But if a person wants to be wealthy, wealthy during his life, he has to give 20%. And 20% is much harder. Not just because the number is higher, 10 times 2 is 20. Not because of that. Because in reality, it's a large chunk of money, especially as you start getting the blessing. In the beginning, when you're making 500 bucks a week, and you end up giving 100 dollars of tzedakah, you know, that's 20%. Okay, 100 dollars. I mean, if you're a relatively generous person, 100 bucks, 100 bucks, everybody can really, you know, reason with giving 100 dollars. What about a kadosh who starts blessing you? You start making thirty thousand a month, that means that your ma'aser now is a six-thousand-dollar check. Six thousand dollars, that's a lot of money. Six thousand dollars, you can pay rent, car, this, that. Depending on where you live, you can pretty much pay for your life with six thousand dollars. So now you think, "Wait a minute, I'm going to give the six thousand dollars to kiruv? All right, crazy. No, no, no, my ma'aser is already enough. Three thousand is enough for them."

6:27Because I'm technically giving more. I used to give 20%, which was $100. But I'm sure Hashem is happy with me. I'm giving $3,000. Failed. So the reality is, when it comes to Chumash, it's much harder because the numbers get much bigger. You start making $100,000 a month, and a $20,000 check you're going to write is a big check. You already could start thinking about how many great things you could do with this check that you're about to give. And it starts getting much, much harder, even though you're getting blessings. That's why the Torah in Sefer Devarim says, "Don't forget G-d." What does it mean, "Don't forget G-d"? After He gives you prosperity and reward, don't forget Him. Don't be one of these ungrateful people who fulfill some of His mitzvot, G-d gives you a little bit of good in your life, a little blessing in your life, and that blessing causes you to forget G-d. So that's why tzedakah is a very, very big test. But if you pass it, Hashem guarantees that you'll become wealthy in this world materially, and not just a day before you die. Obviously, you get to enjoy it to a certain extent. Now, this is a test for some people. Most people do not even give 10%.

7:38don't even give 10%. They think that it's enough if they give a couple of times a year, they give tzedakah, they buy an aliyah during the chagim, they see a campaign on the internet, they donate some money here and there, but it's good to give something, it's obviously better than zero, but it's not the same. It's not the same. There are two mitzvot. There's tzedakah and there's the ma'aser. A person that wants to have financial protection, that wants to have a blessing in their parnassah, has to not only give tzedakah, which has no limitations, but also has to give the ma'aser. Now, because the ma'aser, even more than tzedakah, shows your real emunah in Hashem. As life goes on, because it's in essence, every time you get money, you give ma'aser. It's not like you don't do yourself a disservice by saying, "No, I'm going to give at the end of the year when I realize what happened." No, no. Give as soon as the money comes in. As the number gets bigger, the test gets bigger. But the point is that people who do it, they benefit. But a lot of people don't do it because it's tough.

8:48It's tough because they rationalize things and so on. So it's highly, highly recommended for people to do it. But also, like I said yesterday in the shiur, make sure that if you're giving, you're giving to the right cause and not to some Hanukkah party, Purim party, or save the whale party. Give it to something that's going to sanctify Hashem's name, that's going to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, that's going to publicize Torah, and so on. If that happens to be B'ezrat Hashem's organization, good. If you have another one, tell me about it, I'll donate to them too. If it's good, it's good. Unfortunately, there aren't that many good things out there. But if something is good, then why not support it? But if you already have something that's good, that's where you invest all your money.