Why should one give money to charity? I recently heard someone argue against giving money to those less fortunate saying: ‘I have worked hard for my money and I want to keep it for myself. I work hard to be able to have a nice car, a beautiful home and a holiday, so why should any one else have my money? If they want money they should work hard for it like I have done! ‘ Sounds fair enough doesn’t it? Or does it?
In this week’s Torah portion (5:9) we read: ‘And every portion from any of the holies that the children of Israel bring to the Kohen shall be his. ‘ Rashi comments on this and says, that the word ‘holies’ refers to the Bikkurim – the first fruits ones fields – about which it is written in Exodus 23:19: ‘The choicest first fruit of your land you shall bring to the House of the Lord, your God. ‘ Our verse, says Rashi, adds that once brought to the House of the Lord it must be given to the Kohen.
Why does the Torah separate these two details of bringing to the House of the Lord, which is written in Exodus, and giving to the Kohen, which is written in our portion?
Since growing fruit takes a tremendous amount of effort – one must plough, sow, nurture, harvest etc. – one may think: ‘After all this hard work at least let me enjoy the first fruit. Why should the Kohen get it? It was I who worked hard, not the Kohen ‘.
Therefore the Torah tells us in Exodus that before one may eat from the fruit, ‘the choicest first fruit of your land you shall bring to the House of the Lord, your God. ‘ We need to realise that the first fruits don’t really belong to us at all – they belong to God. Once we are cognisant of this fact, it becomes less difficult to part with the first fruits and give them to the Kohen.
Bikkurim is like charity. The Torah tells us that we must tithe our income and give a tenth of it to charity (Shulchan Aruch, Yorah Deah 249). But we may become dogged by the same attitude as the above-mentioned radio presenter, saying, ‘Why should I give to charity? I worked hard for my money, so let me enjoy it – all of it ‘. From the Mitzvah of Bikkurim we learn that this tenth part of our income, (and some opinions say that one can give away up to a fifth) actually belongs to God, not to us. After internalising this fact it will become much easier for us to give away money to charity.
If we give to charity in the manner that the Torah recommends, we are guaranteed in the following verse of our Torah portion that, ‘what a man gives to the Kohen, shall be his. ‘ This means (Brachot 63a) that by giving charity ones income will increase greatly. In the merit of our present donations to charity, may our incomes increase to enable us to fulfil this mitzvah of charity in an ever-increasing measure.