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Why do some people do this? For example, saying that they saw a supposedly poor person wearing something other than rags, so they must not be truly poor?
Because they’re anti-Semitic/anti-Chareidi.
Unfortunately the bad guys (fake beggers) caused us to think this way. Its not a new concept of ” the bad guys ruin it for the good guys.
I don’t think the judgement is necessarily applied to normal ‘poor people’.
I can picture it in a situation where you want to decide if a person claiming to be poor is telling the truth. For example:
On every Wednesday (I don’t know why specifically that day) I am faced with 20+ collectors during shachris. I cannot afford to a) give all of them a decent donation, and b) cannot interrupt my davening so many times. I therefore feel the need to dismiss/ignore some of them if possible. Almost all of them are ‘regulars’ who come every week.
There is one in particular who wears gold rings, a fancy watch, and drives a very nice car.
Does that mean I am complaining that he is ‘not poor enough’? Rather I assume he is not as needy as the other people that I choose to give my money too.
It helps that he is rude, does not know how to answer Amen and does not even know not to ask people for money during Shemone Esrei. Maybe the next CR discussion can address whether they are “not Jewish enough”!
Just because someone has a nice suit that his local Chessed organization purchased for him, doesn’t mean that he has money for food. Furthermore, possibly he bought the nice clothing when he did have money.
yitzyk, why are they allowed in during davening? Can’t the gabbaim tell them to wait until the end of davening? Our gabbai does, and the gabbaim where I’ve davened previously did this as well. Some of them wait, some of them leave.
Halevai the mispalelim would wait until the end of davening!
If someone wants to make an appeal and asks the Gabbai for permission, he is told to wait until after davening. By then there is barely a minyan left. The rest of the collectors just walk around freely. That is typical for a busy shul in the middle of Brooklyn.
Note that locking the door is not an option, because just like there is barely a minyan by the end of davening, there is also barely a minyan at the beginning. People continue to walk in late, and very late.
The saddest part is that the first 10 to arrive and the last 10 to leave are mostly the same people!! To paraphrase Shabbos Zemiros – Hameachrin Lavo U’Meharririn Lotzais…
you have an interesting twist on the word “paraphrase”.
The situation described by the OP is not one with which I am familiar. I am familiar with people questioning whether or not beggars in Jewish areas and really Jewish or just pretending to up their revenue.
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