Jews give tzedakah because it is a mitzvah – a commandment to give. The Rambam (Maimonides) writes in his introduction to the laws of tzedakah (Gifts to Poor People 10:1), “We must be especially careful to observe the mitzvah of tzedakah, more so than any other positive mitzvah.” Let me repeat that last part:  “more so than any other positive mitzvah.” According to the Rambam, you need to be more careful about giving tzedakah than other positive mitzvot, such as loving God, observing Yom Kippur, sanctifying the Shabbat, putting on tefillin, affixing a mezuzah, eating matzah, hearing the shofar, honoring parents, being fruitful and multiplying, and so on.

The Rambam – a physician, philosopher, astronomer, and one of the greatest rabbinic minds in our history – understood that people would be more likely to be extremely scrupulous about the matzah they eat or about their Shabbat observance than to give tzedakah properly, so he made a point to clarify where the priority ought to be.

The great rabbinic mind of the previous generation, Rav J.B. Soloveitchik felt that the mitzvah of giving tzedakah is one of only two mitzvot where being “machmeer” (more strict than necessary) is “highly advisable.” (as quoted in Rabbi Aaron Adler’s book Seventy Conversations in Transit, OU Press, Urim Publishers, 2021, p.157).

I once read a quote by BZ (who only identified himself by his initials): “How much better would the Jewish world be if we could apply the same obsessive-compulsiveness to tzedakah that we do to cleaning for Pesach?” Indeed, too often, we can be very poor tzedakah givers.

One thing we must understand: tzedakah money doesn’t actually belong to us – it always belongs to the recipient. We are only the trustees, holding the funds in trust until distributed. We

are trusted to give tzedakah in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Otherwise, we are misusing tzedakah funds which belong to someone else!

My ‘tzedakah rebbe’, Danny Siegel, taught me from Mishlei (Proverbs 22:22): “Al Tigzol Dal, Kee Dal Hu – Do not steal from a poor person, because he is poor.” The rabbis come along and ask a very appropriate question (in Numbers Rabba 5:2): “What can this possibly mean? If one is poor, what is there to steal?”

They answer, explaining that poor people have God-given rights – the right to the benefits from certain Torah mitzvot like the gleaning of the fields and other tzedakah-related commandments. If we don’t provide what we are obligated to give to the poor person, in essence, we are stealing from them. The rabbis ask, “Isn’t it enough that they are poor and live in misery while the rich are living comfortably, but you would also dare steal from them what God has given to them?”

Most of us give to community tzedakah funds or non-profit organizations. Unfortunately, many non-profits have high overhead – 25%, 35% and some with even more than 50% – meaning that more than half of your contribution goes to things other than what you really thought or wanted.

For example, you want to support feeding people in need. Non-profit “X” spends 28% of every dollar you contribute on overhead, so only 72% actually goes to feeding people in need. If you had a choice between supporting “X” or a different organization “Y” with overhead of only 14% (assuming that, for the most part, they were relatively equivalent), which one would you choose? And if the organization is in Israel, add to that the expenses incurred by the “American Friends of”- some of which are not very efficient themselves – and your effective tzedakah monies