USCJ Review - Fall 2004
Charity Cheaters: To What Extent Should We Investigate the Individuals and Organizations to Whom We Contribute?
Question
A bag lady accosts me on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and asks me for a quarter. Should I ask her why she doesn’t go out and get a job? I enter my local Jewish bookstore and see five pushkes (charity boxes) on the counter. Should I automatically put a quarter in each, or should I read the fine print and investigate each charity’s legitimacy? Lastly, I receive many direct mail solicitations every month. Should I send a small donation to each or investigate every charity that asks for money and then decide?
Responsum
These are not new questions. Jews have been grappling with these dilemmas for at least 2,000 years. On the one hand, most individuals and organizations that ask for our help are legitimate and really do merit our tzedakah. On the other hand, a certain percentage of those who ask for money are dishonest.
Some tzedakah experts say that it is better to give often and spontaneously, even if one is not sure about the credentials of the recipients because, if we stop to think about every contribution, we will get out of the tzedakah habit. Others say we should investigate before we give, because by giving to the wrong people and organizations, we may have technically fulfilled the mitzvah oftzedakah, but we are in fact depriving those who really need our help.
Surprisingly, the rabbinic sources have a basically positive attitude toward beggars. Maimonides clearly states in his Mishneh Torah (Gifts to the Poor 7:2): “Whoever sees a poor person asking [for assistance] and ignores him and does not give him tzedakah has transgressed a negative commandment as it is written ‘do not harden your heart nor shut your hand against your needy brother’” (Deuteronomy 15:7).
Other passages recommend kindness to beggars for selfish reasons: “Rabbi Nahman said: ‘This world is like a water wheel – the bucket that is full empties, while the empty becomes filled’ ” (Leviticus Rabbah 34:9). In other words, you should give to beggars now, because one day down the road, the tables may be turned – the beggar may become wealthy, while you may become a beggar.
Nonetheless, our sages were not blind. They knew that some beggars were frauds and would escape detection. Indeed, a number of rabbis were duped by dishonest beggars. Rabbi Hanina, for example, “was accustomed to send four zuz to a certain poor person every Friday. One time he sent the money with his wife. She returned and said to him, ‘There is no need... I heard them say to him: On what will you dine – on the white linen tablecloths or on the dyed silk tablecloths?’ ” (Ketubot 67b-68a).
This type of fraud prompted Rabbi Elazar to say: “Come let us be grateful to the cheaters, for were it not for them we [who do not always respond to every appeal for tzedakah] would sin every day” (ibid).
Other sages were not so forgiving. They resorted to cursing the cheaters in order to discourage fraud. The Mishnah (Pe’ah 8:9), for example, states: “Whoever does not need to take yet takes, will not depart from the world until he will be dependent on others... and whoever is not lame or blind and pretends to be, will not die of old age before he becomes like one of them, as it is written: ‘He who seeks evil, upon him it shall come’” (Proverbs 11:27).
Yet, despite the fear of possible fraud, none of the sages refrained from giving tzedakah. After all, according to Rav Assi, it is as important as all of the other commandments put together (Bava Batra 9a).
Some later rabbis shared the liberal approach of Rabbi Chaim of Tzanz, a 19th-century Hasidic rabbi: “I give tzedakah to one hundred poor people on the assumption that I may find one out of a hundred who is worthy and I will have the merit of helping him. But you refrain from giving to one hundred poor people... lest one of them be unworthy. Therefore know that the average beggar who holds out his hand is presumed to need the money and you should not concern yourself with hidden matters (Darkhei Hayyim, Jerusalem, 1962, p. 137).
The talmudic sages, however, were more careful with their tzedakah. They realized that if you give to everyone who asks for money, you ultimately deprive those who really need the money. They therefore took precautions against fraudulent beggars:
- Rabbi Abba did not want to embarrass the poor by having to look at them, following the principle of mattan baseter [giving in secret] (Bava Batra 9b and 10b), but he was wary of cheaters. He therefore “would wrap the coins in his kerchief and drag it behind him and walk by the houses of the poor, but out of the corner of his eye he looked for cheaters (Ketubot 67b).
- One talmudic passage – Bava Batra 9a – gives explicit advice about avoiding charity fraud: “Rav Huna said: ‘One investigates when asked for food, but not when asked for clothing.’ Rav Yehudah said: ‘One investigates when asked for clothing, but not when asked for food.’ ” The Talmud concludes with a beraita (teaching of the early sages) which supports Rav Yehudah, and this latter ruling was codified by the standard codes of Jewish law (Maimonides ibid. 7:6 and Shulhan Arukh ibid. 251:10).
It seems, then, that the guiding principle was that one waives investigation when faced with an urgent situation of human suffering: A person who asks for food may be in pain and may die. Therefore, you give him the benefit of the doubt and feed him on the spot. But a person who asks for a change of clothes can wait while you check him out.
Times have changed; and beggars no longer ask for food or clothing; but the same principle can be applied. If an emaciated person dressed in rags asks you for a quarter, you should give him the benefit of the doubt. But if a nicely dressed charity collector comes to your door collecting for his yeshiva, you can take down his particulars and send him a check after establishing his legitimacy. No one will starve in the interim.
All of the sources quoted thus far have dealt with individuals who ask for money. What of organizations, which do most of their solicitations through pushkes or via the mail? How can we determine their legitimacy? The halakhah provides two clear criteria: the trustworthiness of the person who runs the charity and the financial records of the organization.
The Talmud states: “A person should not give a penny to the communal charity purse unless it is under the supervision of a person [as honest as] Rabbi Hananyah ben Teradyon” (Bava Batra 10b and Avodah Zarah 17b). Rabbi Hananyah was chosen as the paradigm because once, when the funds of two different charities became confused, he made up the difference from his own pocket (Avodah Zarah ibid). The standard codes of Jewish law therefore rule that “a person should only give to a charity fund if he knows that the overseer is trustworthy and wise and knows how to manage it properly” (Maimonides ibid 10:8 and Shulhan Arukh ibid. 256:1). In most cases, if the person running the organization is trustworthy, then the organization is trustworthy.
As for financial records, the Talmud states: “One does not check the records of tzedakah collectors... as it is written [regarding the treasurers of the Temple]: ‘for they do their work in good faith’ ” (II Kings 12:16) (Bava Batra 9a). Maimonides (9:11) and Rabbi Joseph Karo (Shulhan Arukh 257:2) simply quote the Talmud. But Rabbi Jacob ben Asher and Rabbi Moshe Isserles have a different approach (Tur and Shulhan Arukh ibid): “One does not need to investigate honest collectors. But in order that they be ‘clean before the Lord and before Israel’ (Numbers 32:22), it is good for them to give an accounting.”
They knew what many tzedakah experts stress: Accountability leads to honesty and efficiency. It is hard to cheat when everyone has access to the facts and figures. It is hard to waste money on overhead when potential donors know exactly how much is being spent on furniture, staff and brochures.
Thus, according to halakhah, when you see a pushke or receive a mail solicitation, your first question should be: Do I trust the person running the organization? If you do not know the person or cannot find out enough about him, you should request a copy of the budget in order to check the group’s honesty and wastefulness.
Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin is the President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. This responsum is abbreviated from a selection in his book Responsa in a Moment: Halakhic Responses to Contemporary Issues (The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 2000). The book can be purchased from www.schechter.edu.
