DIN: I don't agree with the rabbi, I believe giving to anyone who stretches out his arm . A shekel won't hurt anyone.
During a question-and-answer session which took place Wednesday night with Rabbi Bentzion Mutzafi, a prominent Sephardi posek, he was asked about giving charity to beggars.
The woman who asked said that she tries to be tight on expenses and to maintain caution in spending her husband’s hard-earned money. However her husband gives money to every beggar and buys things for others who promise to return them and sometimes forget to. She asked whether her husband is obligated to give to beggars.
Rabbi Mutzafi responded that “99% of those who beg for money are not paupers and don’t use the money, they have ‘hoarding syndrome’ and like ants gathering food, they wish to accumulate money for themselves.”
Rabbi Mutzafi added that “more than two thirds of them use the money for alcohol, drugs and other evil vices, may G-d save us from them. It is forbidden to give them any money.”
4 comments:
Years ago a local newspaper ran a story by a reporter who investigated this kind of thing. He noticed one woman who begged at a specific spot on one of the fanciest streets in downtown Toronto. He carefully watched her and at the end of the day following here when she "closed up shop". She went down an alleyway to a small street, got into a fancy car and drove away.
Eventually he tracked her down living in a very nice neighbourhood and confronted her. Apparently she had nothing to do all day while her husband was at work and her kids were at school so to pass the time she went downtown to beg to see how much she could make.
"DIN: I don't agree with the rabbi, I believe giving to anyone who stretches out his arm . A shekel won't hurt anyone."
The halacha on Purim is that כל מי שפושט ידו נותנין לו. But not the rest of the year. I understand that some people act in a Purim manner year-round though.
DIN, you once said you don't give a penny to the ones shnorring for kids diros (which is the case of many shnorrers who travel to the Western hemisphere) because your family comes first - which in halacha is a correct approach.
There is a shita many have to give to anyone of those who shnorr for actual food donations as it's unlikely that anyone but a real nitzrach would do that.
8:48
I'm impressed that people "halt chesben" to what I write. I still hold by that position but a shekel won't hurt to give,
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