What Do You Get For a Deity That Has It All?

1.  Exodus 25:1-8

1] Adonai spoke to Moses saying:  2] Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for Me a gift offering; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.  3] And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver and copper; 4] blue, purple and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair; 5] tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; 6] oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; 7] lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.  8] And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.  9] Exactly as I show you – the pattern of the Tabernacle and that pattern of all its furnishings – so shall you make it.

2.  Rashi: Exodus 25:2

That they take for me an offering:  Terumah means “separating,” let them separate (set apart) for Me from their wealth a freewill offering.  

3.  Yiddish Folktale

“Yankel the Cheapskate” would not give money to anyone, for any reason.  It didn’t matter how important the cause; no one could crack him.  He just wouldn’t contribute.  One day, Yankel was crossing the river in a small boat.  Suddenly, a huge storm breaks out, and his boat capsizes.  Luckily, another boat approached.  The sailor calls out to him: “Give me your hand! Give me your hand!”

Yankel can barely hear him over the strong winds and the roaring waves. He hears only one word over and over: “Give, give…”

And good old Yankel can’t help himself.  He yells back: “No. I don’t give. I don’t give.”

Again: “Yankel, give me your hand! Give me your hand!” And again, Yankel screams: “Never. I don’t give.”

Finally, in desperation, the rescuer yells, “Yankel, take my hand.” And Yankel says: “Oh take? Sure.”

4.  Kitzur Shulhan Aruch 34:4

How much must a person contribute to charity?  The first year one should donate a tenth of one’s capital and thereafter, a tenth of one’s annual profits; this however is the average way of giving charity, but the most preferable way of performing this precept is to give a fifth of the capital in the first year and after, a fifth of the annual profit.  A person must not give more than one fifth so that they may not eventually need the support of others. 

5.  Pirkei Avot (Teachings of the Fathers) 5:10

[One who says] what is mine is yours and what is yours is yours, is a pious person

6.  Deuteronomy 15:7-8

If there be among you a poor person, one of your brethren, within any of your gates, in your land which Hashem your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand to your poor brethren, but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his needs and that which he wants.

7.  Rashi on Deuteronomy 15:

“If there be among you a needy person” – The most needy has preference; “Within any of your gates” – this implies that the poor of your own city have preference over the poor of another city.

8.  Talmud Gittin 61a

Our rabbis taught – Give sustenance to the poor of the non-Jews along with the poor of Israel, visit the sick of the non-Jews along with the sick of Israel.  Bury the dead of the non-Jews along with the dead of Israel.  (Do all these things) because of the ways of peace.

Compiled by Shira Schwartz

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