A lesson learned at another person’s door
The Millionaire Who Had to Collect
Reb Getzel Berger could have written the entire check. Rabbi Yoel wanted something from him that money alone could not give.
Reb Elikim Getzel Berger of London had risen from poverty to great wealth. He became one of the outstanding philanthropists of his generation, supporting Torah and chesed across the Jewish world. If a campaign needed money, he could give it. Rabbi Yoel nevertheless asked him to do something harder: go to other wealthy men and ask them to give.
He offered the easier gift
Berger answered that he would rather increase his own contribution. The campaign would receive its money without his having to approach anyone else. By the measure of the ledger, it was a generous answer.
Rabbi Yoel did not accept it. He insisted that Berger speak to other donors and collect the tzedakah himself. The amount was not the whole mitzvah.
The giver becomes the collector
A person asking for someone else’s need must leave the security of his own position. He has to knock, explain, hear hesitation, and ask again. Even a millionaire must feel that a suffering Jew’s burden has become his errand.
This was why Satmar students were sent out periodically to collect. Rabbi Yoel wanted the habit formed before adulthood: feet on the pavement, a hand at the door, and the knowledge that chesed is not completed from a safe distance.
What the story taught
Berger’s wealth could fill a fund. Collecting could shape the man who filled it. Rabbi Yoel wanted both: the gift and the giver, the money and the heart trained to carry another Jew’s need.
Sources & further readingOpen the reading list +
Sources
Continue with the books and memories
Collecting Tzedakah — Torah Wellsprings
The published retelling of Rabbi Yoel’s instruction to Reb Getzel Berger, placed within the wider teaching of collecting tzedakah personally.
Open source ↗Reb Getzel Berger — a life of chesed
A biographical introduction to the London philanthropist and his worldwide work for Torah and chesed.
Open source ↗