Giving from the heart

A couple of years ago, Rabbi Wein wrote a devar Torah about this week's parsha which begins as follows:

"The Torah in this week's parsha dwells upon the giving of one's wealth, assets, time and talents for an altruistic public cause - in this case the construction of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of Israel."

Further, he relates an anecdote about the subject of giving from the heart.

"As someone who has been engaged in Torah and Jewish fundraising for many decades, I can testify that when the emotion is present in the heart of the giver, the check is correspondingly larger. While I was in America recently I met a Jew from Israel who was collecting money to help a destitute family cope with a very serious medical issue. While in Los Angeles, he was robbed at gunpoint and the few thousand dollars that he had collected was stolen from him.

Later, when I met him in a different American city, he told me that people were more generous to him after they knew what had happened, even though the purpose of his collection had not changed. I told him that it was the emotion of the unfairness of his loss that now touched the hearts of people and that naturally their donations increased."

It was particulary distressing to read an article in the YeshivaWorld today about the Antwerp community which stated, "Chadrei Chareidim reports that in addition, on motzei Shabbos, email warnings were sent to members of the local kehila that of late, a group of Ukrainians disguised as chareidim visited home and when doors are opened, that empty out the homes."

Particularly when this week's parsha stresses the act of giving, it is unfortunate that people will now be afraid to open their doors and give tzedakah, a foundation of our faith. Hopefully, a solution can be found.