A recent survey conducted in the UK showed that the financial crisis has negatively impacted charities and non-profits. Jewish charities have been equally affected as is demonstrated by the recent announcement by the legendary Jewish philanthropist Lev Leviev that his charities have “decided to reexamine the suitability of their activities to the new budgetary reality” and that he will now be donating on a “smaller scale.”
With other mega philanthropists loosing significant chunks of their net worth, non-profits and charities are bracing themselves for a difficult year ahead.
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Beyond the regular question of why bad things happen to good people there is a deeper theological issue here. The Talmud (Shabbat 119a) says that if one tithes to charity one will become rich and the Kabbalists add that the donor will get a one hundred percent return on every penny given the charity.
So why are so many of the major philanthropists losing large percentages of their wealth? Shouldn’t they be getting richer rather than poorer?
One can answer this question in the classic way arguing that we don’t see the entire picture yet. Loses are mainly only on paper, one can argue, and who is to say that these philanthropists won’t make it all back and come away from this crises wealthier than ever?
Or one can argue that even G-d does not stop a person intent on burning their own money and in this case many wealthy individuals were highly overleveraged and made extremely risky investments that were bound to fail. It is not G-d’s fault that people were myopic you may argue.
These arguments seem reasonable in most other cases of bad things happening to good people, however in this case they are somewhat of a stretch. According to the Talmud, G-d guarantees that tithing brings greater material wealth to the donor in this life time.
Furthermore, whilst there is a blanket prohibition against testing G-d, one is allowed, even encouraged, to test G-d on His guarantee of becoming physically and materially wealthy—or wealthier—through tithing (Taanit 9a and Kiddushin 40a). It is therefore perfectly appropriate to look heavenward and demand to know why it is that people who assiduously tithed are now losing so much of their net worth.
For many Torah believing philanthropists G-d is being put to the test right now. And there is no doubt that G-d will repay all of His debts in a material sense and in a timely fashion. Judaism gives us the right to demand that of G-d.
On the flip side, however, during this economic crisis when there seems to be no ironclad safe investments anywhere, clearly for the faithful the best investment must still be with G-d Himself who offers a guaranteed 100% return.
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