Laws of Tzedakah
- A person should be very careful not to allow tzedakah funds
to get mixed up with his own money. If a person finds money in his house and
is in doubt whether it is tzedakah or not, the poskim disagree on the din, but
clearly, but letzait y’day shamayim a person is required to give it
to tzedakah. - Expenses incurred in collecting tzedakah may be taken from
the tzedakah collected. The cost of those expenses is, itself, considered
tzedakah. A person who collects tzedakah is permitted to receive a portion of
the funds he collects according to the agreement he reaches with the
management of the institution for which he is collecting. But person who is
collecting independently, or the director of an institution who raises funds
should consult with a Rav to establish the amount he may keep for himself. In
this way he avoids suspicion of stealing, for not everyone is capable of
determining for himself if he is permitted to receive a portion of the funds
and how much of it he may keep for himself. I any case, the percentage cannot
be very great, for the donor did not have in mind that he should retain a
large percentage of the tzedakah he gave for himself. - A person who keeps a percentage of the tzedakah he collects
is considered a shomer sacher and is obligated to cover any losses
resulting from theft or loss of the funds he collected. If he doesn’t keep a
percentage for himself, but benefits from he money he collected by using the
cash, he is also considered a shomer sacher. Even if he does not
benefit from the funds he collects in any way, the poskim are not in accord on
his status and some hold that he is, nevertheless, responsible for tzedakah he
collected as a shomer sacher. But all agree that a person who is not as
a careful as he should be to keep the tzedakah he collected safe is obligated
to cover an losses that result from theft or loss. - If money is collected for a specific poor person and more
is collected than is required, the funds remaining belong to that person. The
poskim discuss at length how to handle tzedakah that was collected under the
mistaken assumption that funds were required. - Those who collect tzedakah should be careful to distribute
it immediately to those for whom it was collected, even if it was not
collected explicitly for immediate distribution. It is forbidden for the
person to collected it to hold it. He must distribute at the first
opportunity. According to the Shulchan Aruch, a person who collects tzedakah
may not borrow it for his own use even when it cannot be distributed for some
time. Nevertheless, it is now commonly accepted as permissible. - If a person sets apart eighteen or some multiple of
eighteen monetary units of tzedakah, he may add to it without losing the
benefit of the segula of the number eighteen, for eighteen is included in
whatever number results from the amount he adds. Similarly, a person can add
to the two candles that we light on Shabbos, one representing shemor
and one representing zachor candles, without losing the symbolic value
of the two candles. - If a person puts money aside from which he intends to give
tzedakah on Purim, and some of it is left over after Purim, is he allowed to
use it, or must it be given to tzedakah? If he set the money aside intending
to give it as tzedakah, then it remains tzedakah, for both in thought and deed
he had designated the money for tzedakah. But if set it aside with the idea of
simply having money available from which he could give tzedakah, i.e., in
setting it aside, he did not have in mind that he was designating it all for
tzedakah, then he may use what is left over for any purpose.