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Should families or organizations use children for collecting charity?
Is it a security risk to their safety?
Is it bad chinuk to train them to stick out their hands instead of learning Torah or a Trade!!!!
Why are they still doing it after what happened to Leiby!!!!!
Yes, absolutely, it trains our tinokos shel beis raban in the heilige mitzvah of ?????. See Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Matanos Aniyim. There can be no better lesson than having our precious children collecting ????? for the needy and less fortunate. This lesson lasts a lifetime. Which is why parents, mechanchim, and Yeshivos send out our children to collect. May it continue until all the poor in Klal Yisroel become wealthy Bimhera Byomeinu Amen.
I think its a nice idea but the children should do it in groups of 3 minimum for their own safety.
As with any program or idea- there are pros and cons.
Parents and educators should explain what the rules (i.e. no collecting after it gets dark, during davening…) are and they have to be followed, or they won’t be allowed to volunteer.
One organization I volunteered for (as a 13 year old) had a rule that if someone demands the money- no matter how small the perpetrator is and no matter how much money we collected- we have to give them everything.
I hate the idea (I’ve always voiced my opinions in reality) they use children as a way of “how could you say no to a child” and at the same time, I think turning our children into shnorrers (I remember when I used to learn in Ner Yisrael that there was a bunch of kids that collected for an organization and when someone walked into the lobby of the main beis medrash all of them would run to him and beg for money)
who else are they supposed to use? are you going to do it yourself? no…so why not give kids something constructive to do with their time!? besides its not as if the kid is saying “oh this is great! if i ever have to be homeless now i know how to panhandle! thank you lev l’achim!!!” its more like “OOOH! SHINY PRIZE!!!”
No, in this day and age it is too risky and a recipe for disaster. It also promotes a lack of derech eretz because no one teaches the child how to approach adults in a tzniusdik or respectful manner. In addition it promotes children to approach strangers and not be afraid of them. So that should be a situation that should be stopped.
bomb,
maybe they should enlist bachurim to do it like Ner Yisrael around Purim time and Pesach time where they collect for ner Yisrael’s sister city Yahud in Israel (Bachurim have more of a choice and gives them an opportunity to build communication and selling skills, instead of just running up to someone and begging like a lot of kids do)
When the parents and yeshivos send the children to collect tzedakah, it is the best possible chinunch. That’s why they do it.
I was talking about the “mitzva” of collecting, and how they need to learn how to do so for when they grow older. Who says the schools don’t teach a trade?
There are far better ways to teach children about the importance of tzedakah than sending them out to sell candy bars, apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah or just collecting money. Tzedakah should firstly and primarily be taught in the home – from showing them and then allowing them to “feed” the pushka once a week (at least) and telling them why they are doing it. They should also learn by example from their parents by accompanying them to visit the elderly, etc. or the children seeing them collecting for various causes – by phone or even going door to door. They should know that the reason one of the parents is out is because they are at a meeting of a tzedakah organization and then a discussion about it and its importance. Secondly, the schools should be re-enforcing what is taught in the home. They will learn far more with such methods than when they are given a box of chocolate bars and sent out to sell them. Many do this at such a young age that they don’t quite grasp the concept of why or where the funds go. Learning tzedakah is an ongoing process that should begin in early childhood.
aries2756-
Yikes, I never thought of that. Things definitely changed over the past 20 to 25 years. Once the person gives the kid a dollar the giver is buying trust.
peacemaker,
why do you say it’s chinuch (what is it chinuch for)
It’s chinuch for raising (and giving) tzedakah for others.
but they aren’t the ones giving, if you want to teach them about giving tzedakah to others take them on a trip and give tzedakah, or go to tomchei shabbos, or better yet when a meshulach comes to the door bring him in give him a drink and have your kids their when you write the check and explain to them you’re doing a very important mitzvah of giving tzedakah
You are teaching them to raise funds for the needy and less fortunate by collecting tzedakah on their behalf.
oh so it’s chinuch for raising funds, not for giving tzedakah I see (I guess that’s good if you want them to grow up to be fund raisers)
oh so it’s chinuch for raising funds, not for giving tzedakah I see (I guess that’s good if you want them to grow up to be fund raisers)
That was my point as well. They are teaching children a trade, as per Halacha.
What does “want them to be fundraisers” mean. It’s a mitzvah to raise funds for the needy and less fortunate.
That was my point as well. They are teaching children a trade, as per Halacha.
Gavra,
If you ask the kids parents what they want their kids to be when they grow up i don’t think 1% of them would say “A fundraiser”
which mitzvah is this,
actually a gabbai tzedaka has to be a Talmid Chochom (It’s a gemara in Bava Basra I think)
Gavra,
If you ask the kids parents what they want their kids to be when they grow up i don’t think 1% of them would say “A fundraiser”
Your point?
Being the Gabbai Tzedakah is a Mitzvah. And we all hope they kinderlach will be a Talmid Chochom. That’s what they’re going to Yeshiva for.
Your point?
my point is that you can’t force the kids to learn a trade their parents don’t want them to learn (it’s the parents job to teach them a trade, it’s an explicit gemara in the 4th perek of kiddushin)
Being the Gabbai Tzedakah is a Mitzvah. And we all hope they kinderlach will be a Talmid Chochom. That’s what they’re going to Yeshiva for.
you still didn’t mention which mitzvah it is (are there 614 mitzvos in the torah) we can hope, but until they are talmidei chachamim they can’t be gabbai tzedakahs
my point is that you can’t force the kids to learn a trade their parents don’t want them to learn (it’s the parents job to teach them a trade, it’s an explicit gemara in the 4th perek of kiddushin)
Being that in many schools, that is the only trade taught (Begging/Panhandling), and the parents send their children to these schools, I can only assume that the parents are farming out their responsibilities (for pay, or for others’ pay, keeping to the trade taught) to the schools. Your explicit 1% has become much larger due to implicit acquiescence.
I guess u have a point gavra
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