Anyone who gives to charity asks himself or herself, “How much is enough?”
Unlike taxes there is not set amount. Several religions say 10 percent of one’s net income is the mark. (Following Talmudic guidelines, many traditional Jews do just that.) That’s a very generous number. Still, if you’re Bill Gates you can obviously still dig a little deeper.
My friend Drew Staffenberg, who was the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, used to say, “Don’t give until it hurts; give until it feels good.” Then, of course, he’d ask me for a painful amount of money.
I just returned from a climbing trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Our expedition company, EarthTreks, told us before we left to bring one extra clothing item to give to our porters. They are extremely poor people and are ill-equipped to go high up on a very cold mountain. I volunteered to ask the group to bring an extra duffle bag so that we could each bring much more than one shirt or jacket.
Our group was a fundraising effort for breast cancer research. Still, I thought we could go perform another mitzvah by gathering a huge duffel bag of warm climbing clothes for the people who would be lugging our heavy loads.
Before I knew it, I had three extra duffle bags stuffed with gear. I grew worried about how I was going to get that there with airlines getting strict on extra baggage. So, I e-mailed the group that I couldn’t’ carry anymore and to just bring one item themselves.
At the end of the glorious trip, it was time to donate our old, tired clothing to the guys who made the climb possible. They lined up and gobbled up our old fleece as if they were brand new, top-of-the-line clothing. Everyone – donor and recipient—had a huge smile – except for me. I anguished over the thought that I could have fit one more out-dated shirt in my carry-on or in yet another duffle bag. I could have created one more smile for a person who made less in one year then many Americans make in month.
How much tzedaka is enough? As always, I could have given just a bit more.
Posted by on 07/03/08 at 09:46 AM | Comments (1)
Comments
nice article - giving tzedakah is never an exact science. and, like most things in the world, those who do it best (what danny siegel - http://www.dannysiegel.com - calls mitzvah heroes) are the best ones to consult along the way.
in your particular case, maybe you can find others who are travelling there and ask them to take one more article of clothing. then you will have ‘covered’ your desire to do more!
and when in doubt, ask a mitzvah hero - they know what is going on and how best to solve it.
arnie draiman
http://www.draimanconsulting.com
http://www.mitzvahheroesfund.org
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