Parshat Terumah: Giving & Taking

This week's parshah begins with something very near and dear to the heart of the Jewish community: contribution. HaShem says to the Israelites, “Take for Me (vayikchu-li) an offering from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity" in preparation for the construction of the mishkan, the tabernacle that will be carried throughout the desert and eventually will lead to the building of the Beit haMikdash, the holy Temple.

It's a particular word spin, and I hope it makes you pause. The Big Man speaks, saying we should take from ourselves -- but only if we're inspired! The verb that's used does not mean give, it means quite literally to take, which also is peculiar because how does one take of himself or from himself? How does one provide a contribution on command and guarantee that it's genuinely inspired?

Very little of giving today happens on demand. HaShem doesn't call us on Super Sunday and say we have to give to our local federations or that the local Jewish retirement facility needs funds so we must give. And even if that did happen, would we? What compels us to give? Is it the action of taking of ourselves rather than giving of ourselves? It becomes a two-way street when you take something from your own life, from your own lot, and provide it for others. When you give, it's less so.

I want to start using more folktales on the blog (and really, who doesn't), so let's start with this one, a Yiddish one, that offers perspective on the difference between "giving" and "taking."

"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."

I think that this week's parshah offers a spin on what we considering taking. To take something from someone else benefits the self, so perhaps HaShem knew that asking the Israelites to take of themselves would give them a chance to feel a part of the building of the mishkan. No matter how poor or rich, old or young, everyone provided for the construction. Everyone took of themselves to put into the construction of a dwelling place for the shechinah (the divine presence of HaShem). 

An old adage says that "A fool gives, a wise person takes." Be the wise person and whenever you offer a contribution or gift, make sure that you're taking of yourself and not just giving. Okay? Okay. 

That's your public service announcement for Shabbat. If you want more on the awesome goodness that is tzedakah, I suggest you check out Maimonides Eight Levels of Charity, which is fascinating. 

Who Wants Free $$ (To Donate, That Is)!?

I wrote very recently about my awesome experiences at the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit in New York City, which was hosted by Social Media and Nonprofit guru Dave Weinberg. Most specifically, I wrote about DonorsChoose.org, which helps classrooms all over the country to meet their financial goals for projects on such things as salmon, the Holocaust, and the Great Gatsby (to name just a few, of course). DonorsChoose provided those of us in attendance with $10 to use on the site, so we could get started and really feel the goodness of giving (it's easier to give when it isn't your own money, right?) and hopefully inspire some of us to continue giving (I helped a friend meet his classroom's goal of math supplies!).

So I'm here to pay it forward, and hopefully, I can inspire some of you to start giving, too. I truly think that giving once (in this case it's free money) can really spark your neshama into a constant effort of tzedakah (charity).

GIVEAWAY: I have TWO $10 DonorsChoose gift cards to TWO individuals. The winners (that is, GIVERS!) will be chosen at random from individuals who comment below. You will get the gift card information via email, at which time you'll head to DonorsChoose, pick a project, and give your $10. The result should be a feeling of great pride, mitzvah awesomeness, and hopefully, as I said, an urge to give again and more often.

TO ENTER: When you comment, to fulfill your chance at $10 to give at DonorsChoose.org, you have to write about either an experience in which you gave (whether charity or time) that truly impacted you OR about a project on DonorsChoose.org to which you plan to give your $10. 

GIVEAWAY ENDS ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010, AT 6 PM EST. 

Nu? What are you waiting for? Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else. 

The Power of Giving

Last year I went through a phase of giving over the period of a month. I gave to a variety of Jewish organizations, with the ultimate goal of ... feeling good. I'll admit it. I never really gave to any organizations before, because I never had money. When I did have money, I was busy paying off my creditcard debt. So the moment I had a few free bucks, I gave. Meagerly, but I gave, and mostly to my tzedakah box at home.

Right now, I'm sitting at the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit in NYC, where giving, charity, and money have been the major topics of conversation. The fellow who opened the day's events, Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, really paved the way for me to rethink how I view giving and charity, and for that I'm super thankful. In fact, I added a link on the right-hand sidebar to GO to DonorsChoose.org. And? I donated some money to a single effort that I'll mention in a few. All you have to do is go there, find any random or specific project looking for some funds, and give something, anything. One dollar will get a classroom far, believe it or not, and if a lot of people donate a lot of dollars, then bam -- you'll have a classroom with a bunch of awesome supplies like protractors and pencils and calculators and ... books. Yes. Books. Some people need something as simple as books.

In 2009, more than $300 billion were given charitably.* 

Seventy-five percent of that? From individuals.

A corporate giving list can be found at goodness500.org.

You can actually go to DonorsChoose.org and type in the keyword for any cause you fight for on a regular basis, any cause you donate to. Best used the example of a guy who is big on salmon in the Northwest. So Best told him to go to DonorsChoose and search "salmon." Bam. There were projects at schools all over that needed some type of donation tied in with salmon. Yoga? There are a lot of those, too. I looked up journalism, and there are a ton of projects looking for simple goods for journalism goodness. Holocaust your thing? There are a bucketload of projects looking for help in funding for supplies for Holocaust projects.

Basically, what I am saying is this: You got a cause you dig? You got an extra dollar in your pocket? Skip the latte tomorrow and donate it to a good cause. Let me get you started. An old college chum, Josh, is a Teach for America teacher in Kansas City, is looking for supplies for his math class. Simple stuff. Easy stuff. Just go there. (He needs $80, come on!)

Give a Little!

And by that, I mean give a little bit of your time to pay heed to the following and do your part!

• Help Friendship Circle, a non-profit dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals with special needs through critical life skills training, promoting advocacy in the general population through our strong volunteer core and play-therapy based programs that pair teens and special friends together to form a life-changing bond of friendship, win $1 million dollars! CLICK HERE NOW!

• There's a stellar Twitter guy, @jewishlibrary, attempting to put together an amazing library. I'd post all of the information here, but I'd rather just send you over to the Life in Israel blog. Write a letter, get the library REALLY going, and make this project HAPPEN!

• Have you voted in the Shorty Awards? If you haven't, go, nominate me for something awesome, but most importantly go give @Lubavitch some love! To do so, simply click here. 

Feel free to use the comments section to tout your own happenings or voting or whatever you have going on!

Tzedakah, Days 4/5

I neglected to throw some change in the tzedakah box last night, and I also meant to do it this morning, but forgot. So I've decided to do a little researching on the Web this morning for Jewish charities (I'm not going to be Jew-exclusive, here, never fear, but that's where I'm starting my tzedakah -- I also intend on donating to groups focused on literacy, because darn't I need more readers!). Today's lucky winner?

FIDF: Friends of the Israeli Defense Force

Mission Statement: The FIDF initiates and helps support social, educational, cultural and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland. The FIDF also provides support for the families of fallen soldiers.

When I was in Israel on Birthright in December, the time I spent with the Israeli soldiers who took time away from the IDF to jaunt around the country with us was probably the most memorable. Here are these people, my age, half a world away who are willing to put their lives on the line for not only the safety of the Jewish homeland, but also for me. Yes, little ole me over here in the United States. They aren't just protecting Israel, they're protecting every Jew from New Zealand to Alaska to Dallas to Warsaw to Beijing. They do it every day so that we will always have a place of safety, a home. Visiting Mt. Carmel cemetery was one of the hardest things I've ever done, period. I cried like a baby when I saw the grave of the paratrooper with my name, not to mention when I saw the not-so-old grave of a soldier who passed during the Second Lebanon war where someone had placed a toothbrush. Something so simple as a toothbrush! This soldier, surely, in his afterlife needs a toothbrush, no? There were old men sitting near graves, just staring at their sons. And there were empty plots, ready and willing to take on the remains of soldiers who fell during the most recent and upcoming wars. It was a beautiful place, a shrine to the lives of the soldiers who make MY life easier to live.

So, for yesterday and today, I give to the Friends of the IDF -- may these funds offer good things for my friends, the soldiers, and to the families of those who have fallen to protect you, me, and the message of shalom.

Guilt = Money for Charity

Absolutely famished, I made dinner, scarfed it down, and about 15 minutes later realized what an absolutely STUPID thing I had done. I made a huge party foul in the likes of catastrophe. I'm so angry at myself. So I went first thing to AskMoses.com to get some wisdom -- what does someone who severely busted the laws of kashrut do to amend? I mean, this isn't Catholicism folks, you don't confess. You just sit around with loads of guilt, waiting for the incident to escape your mind. And then something else happens and it's a vicious cycle! So what did the nice woman at AskMoses.com tell me to do? She suggested I pay more attention to what I'm eating, which is a given, and that I donate money to a food-oriented charity.

So Mazon, please take my guilt money and use it for a good thing.