One thing I can say for sure – we all have a funny relationship with money. For most of us, cash in the bank represents so much of the real stuff of life – stability, security, freedom, happiness and even ultimate fulfillment. This is why we who find ourselves on the fundraising end of the money equation have such a delicate task.

 

Because of all that money represents, asking for money is never a very pleasant task. Few of us enjoy being asked for money. So, under the current rules of fundraising, one has to be ever so careful about whom one asks, how frequently one asks and, especially, how one asks.

 

Otherwise, the fundraiser has to pay a price – even if successful. For example, this year, I went out on a bit of a limb. On two occasions over the High Holy Days, I asked every single person in the room to contribute to Israel Bonds. The result? We doubled the amount of last year’s bond pledges. Jewish National Fund also did better than it has done in previous years. And the Synagogue appeal came close to matching what we raised last year. In spite of these successes, the feedback we have received hasn’t been all that positive.

 

Apparently, people are complaining, not only about how often they were asked, but also, how they were asked. Certainly, a fundraiser has to take such complaints seriously. So I wonder: Did we win the fundraising battle, but lose the fundraising war? Will people so resent this year’s success, that next year our appeals will fall on deaf ears?

 

It’s a legitimate question, under the current rules of the fundraising game. So, I got inspired to turn to the Jewish sources, to see what light they could shed on this dilemma. Here’s what I found:

 

The rabbis don’t consider that we have fulfilled our obligation to give Tzedakah until we have donated ten percent of our annual pre-tax income to charity. This is considered to be an absolute, minimum requirement.

 

Now, to be quite frank, my annual contribution to Tzedakah is more along the order of one-tenth of one-tenth of my annual pre-tax income. I say this to you openly, because I’m sure that I’m not alone in this. This dramatic shortfall in generosity is something that we, as a community, probably need to work on together.

 

Now, to their enormous credit, the rabbis also impose an upper limit on the amount one should give to Tzedakah. According to the rabbis, giving more than 20 percent of one’s annual pre-tax income crosses the line from generosity, into foolhardiness. So, one can also be too generous for one’s own good. However, I suspect that hyper-generosity is not a very common problem these days.

I also recently came upon another concept that helps put fundraising into a more realistic perspective. According to Kabbalah – the field of Jewish mysticism – reality, as we ordinarily experience it, is about 99 percent material, and one percent spiritual.

 

However, according to the Kabbalah, it’s also true that REAL reality – the kind that most of us ordinarily don’t experience – is, in fact, 99 percent spiritual, and one percent material. Take a moment to get your mind around that. The 99 percent of life that so consumes us – our bank accounts, our homes, our material possessions – are, in reality, just one percent of what life is really about. Which means that we’re missing out on about 99 percent of what is truly important in life.

 

How do we begin to recover that lost 99 percent? This is one way we can understand the High Holy Day instruction–U’T’shuvah, U’T’filah, U’Tz’dakah, Ma’avirin Et Ro’a Ha-g’zeirah – “Prayer, repentance and giving to charity avert the severity of the decree.” Ordinarily, we read this in terms of averting the unfortunate events that inevitably come our way over the course of a year.

 

But how about translating this same instruction according to the Kabbalistic perspective? Here it is: “Prayer, repentance and giving to charity help us to awaken from the 99 percent unconsciousness that keeps us from living a life that emulates the Creator, Who, in His holy, hidden way, manages the life of all creation without any problem whatsoever.”

 

Think of it! We inhabit our bodies – but we don’t own them. We didn’t create them, nor did we create the DNA responsible for their being the way they are. In fact, we didn’t create any of the stars or galaxies, solar systems or eco-systems, or laws of physics or chemistry, that maintain life in its infinite harmony and complexity.

 

This is the 99 percent of life that has already existed 15 billion years, and that will continue to exist another 15 billion years. We had nothing to do with creating it. And it’s only been over the last two centuries that we’ve even begun to understand how it functions, or how it may have come into being.

 

Our part, as human beings living on this tiny planet, in this tiny solar system, in this insignificant galaxy – is doing the one percent of goodness that God, in His goodness, created us to do. When we do that goodness – when we do T’shuvah, and T’filah, and Tz’dakah – life changes dramatically for the better.

 

Think of a lamp. There is the light bulb and fixture; the physical structure, and the cord; the plug, and the electric outlet. You can have all that, and still – no light. You can have all of that equipment, all of that 99 percent of readiness for light. You can have the best lamp in the world. But unless someone actually plugs the cord into the outlet, the lamp simply won’t light.  It’ll be as dark as if the lamp weren’t even there.

 

Giving Tzedakah is one very important way that human beings can insert the plug of the lamp of life, into the electric outlet of the Creator. Giving Tzedakah is one very important way that we can fulfill the purpose of the Creator and the creation. Giving Tzedakah is one very important way we can transform ourselves from being mere receivers of the light of the Creator, to being radiators of that light. In emulating the Creator in this way, we transform ourselves, and our world, in the most profound way imaginable.

 

Fundraising appeals for any worthy cause are opportunities to transform the whole nature of our existence, for the goodness, life and peace of the whole world.

 

So, let’s not settle for mediocrity in this most crucial area of Jewish life. Let’s make the effort to stretch the boundaries of our egos, and our pocketbooks, to cosmic proportions, so that we can be partners with God in co-creating the Universe.

 

All of us are consumers of the universe, and as creatures in God’s creation, we certainly have the right to do so. But consuming is not the sole purpose of our being here. We are also here to give, to share, to pay back the great debt that we owe to the God of life, for the amazing world in which we live.

 

When we take the opportunity to give to the Shaarey Zedek, to CJA, to Israel Bonds, to JNF, we actually earn the right to be happy and prosper in all that we do. We actually do something that makes us deserving of the blessings with which God showers us every moment of every day.  May we always continue to do everything we can to increase the flow of blessings in our lives, in the life of the Jewish people and all of humanity everywhere.

 

With all best wishes for a healthy, happy New Year of peace and fulfillment,

 

Rabbi Green