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I’m looking for some information on maaser. Such as:
1) When did maaser change from fruits/vegetables to 10% of your money?
2) Where is this halacha written?
3) What do you take maaser off of? Is it your salary after taxes have been removed? Is it after taxes and loans have been paid?
4) Do you have to have your maaser “paid off” by Rosh Hashana or can you build a fund with it?
5) If you are a farmer in Israel today, do you take maaser from your produce AND your cash? That would seem redundant to me.
I’m going to discuss this with my LOR but I figured I would flesh out my questions a bit here, before talking to my Rabbi so I have my questions fully formed. Discussion always brings up new points to ponder!
Thank you for your help!
SJS: hope you don’t mind if I latch on to your thread with a few additional questions of my own, to wit:
What kind of Tzedakah qualifies as Maaser?
What about tuition for boys? For girls?
What happens when you “buy” an Aliya or a seat in Shul? Aren’t you technically paying for a service or a product?
Is buying coffee, for example, for a shul considered tzedoka? If yes, why? You may be performing the mitzva of Gemilas Chasodim, but is it “tzedoka”?
kitzur,dot,net-I don’t remember anyone saying that “maaser kesofim” is actually “my’doyraissa” but I will check it.Thnaks for quoting “ahavas chessed”, one of the more interesting wroks of the chofezt chaim. I know you write ‘famous sefer’ but I daresay most people identify the chofetz chaim with mishne brurah and ‘chofetz chaim-shmiras haloshon”.
Maaser’s “floor” is 10%, while its “ceiling” is 20%.
I am familiar with one opinion which says that ma’aser is calculated after deducting work-related expenses (such as transportation/ fuel & childcare expenses) from income.
great questions,leiderLeider..
You have great latitude what to do with your “maaser’ money. Many people buy seforim and you will often see the notation ” bought with maaser money’ in seforim.
I cannot say about tuition but personally, I would include tuition as “maaser”. After all, you support talmidei chachomim. Well, at least part of the tuition.
As far as buying coffee and paying for candles ,check out the “Mi sheberach” before mussaf on shabbos that says explicitly “the ones who give money for candles, wine for Kiddush ,bread for guests and charity for the poor”. I certainly would include coffee,cake, schnapps, etc.. as giving zedokoh and could be given with “maaser’ money.
Well, I haven’t checked hilchos zedakah but logic allows the mentioned charities.
SJS, while you’re asking, many people hold that you take 10% off of any interest earned also. Find out!
berlin rabbi: you’re right, the sefer Ahavas Chessed isn’t that famous, and I should have used a different word. There definitely are opinions that hold that Maaser Kesofim is d’Orayssa, based on the psukim “Aser a’aser loch”
kitzur-dot-net:
I cheated a bit and I just googled “maaser kesofim”.(You can do the same). Although there is a ‘daas jochid’ that maintains that “maaser kesofim” is “my-do’oraisa”, the vast majority of Poskim say it is at best ‘mi-derabbonon”. Of course, “maaser oni” is “midoraysa”, (every third and sixth year) but this is different than our “maaser kesofin”.
rabbiofberlin, just a side point: I always thought your name was “stam” made up, but I see by the way you spell “Daas Jochid”, that you really are from Germany. “Ich habe Deutsch drei Jahre studiert”, and I’m very for the German language and spelling. “Mein Grosseltern sind aus Mannheim gekommen”, and it runs in my blood.
There’s actually a Simon in Shulchan Aruch dealing with maser in Yoreh deah hilchos tzedakah.
To the one who quoted (second hand or less) from R’ Dovid Cohen, please ask him yourself. I believe that what you repeated is different from what he originally said. The integrity of the information decreases exponentially with each transmission.
I believe that the source for maaser kesafim is “Asser Ta’asser” in Parshas Re’ah. (Asser Ba’avur she’Tisasher)It is not deoraisa but the practice is learned out based on the possuk. I was taught to consider the chiyuv as a business partnership with Hashem. 10% of what you earn goes to your Partner. As such, expenses related to earning the money are deducted from the total earnings to be divided. I never heard of deducting other expenses such as rent/mortgage and insurance. If a Rov says so, go ahead, but find out if he really did say so.
As far as what ma’aser money can be spent on, I know that there are many, many different ways to pasken. Answering this question is pretty useless on this forum because of the variance between poskim. Ask yours. (for example, rob mentioned buying seforim. I have heard from different Rabbonim that you may, you may not, AND that you may but only if you buy it for a public bookshelf. So what value is there to tell you how MY Rov paskened?)
R’ Moshe says mefurash in a tshuva that ma’aser ksafim nowadays is only a “minhag tov” & not a chiyuv.
All agree that one whos expenses exceed his income is pattur from giving maaser.
Sjs,
If you are looking for a “chumra”, the Vilna Gaon holds (brought by the Chofetz Chaim in Ahavas Chesed) that one must give 20% – m’ikar hadin! Not 10%. 🙂
As someone very correctly pointed out, all these halachos are brought in Shulchan Aruch.
R’ Chaim Kanievsky also has a full peirush modeled after the Mishna Berura called “derech emuna” which covers Hilchos Tzedaka & Hilchos Maaser – two different things.
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