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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 27, 2008 / 28 Tishrei 5769

Tax Deductions for Charitable Donations

By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Q: When you give a charitable donation, you get a benefit in the form of a tax deduction. Doesn't this take away the ethical aspect of the donation?


A: First of all let's make a technical clarification to clear up on occasional misconception: a tax deduction only saves an amount of taxes equal to a fraction of the donation. In the US this is equal to your tax bracket, since the donation is deducted from your income; in Israel it is a fixed credit equal to a little over a third. So it definitely costs you money to give charity. One way of looking at this is that the government is your partner in charity; for every two dollars (or shekels) you donate, the government gives one.


This alone would be a praiseworthy act in Jewish tradition, as the Talmud teaches:


Rebbe Elazar stated, "One who causes others to give is greater than one who gives himself, as it is written (Isaiah 32?), 'And the act of charity is peace, and the labor of charity tranquility and security forever'". (1) The inference is the unusual use of the word "act of charity", which can also be read as "the instigator of charity". (Though it may be open to question if channeling government funds in this way is relevant to this passage, because all government funds are in any case directed to public needs.)


What we see from this is that Jewish tradition is very generous when it comes to giving credit for generosity. In the case of Rabbi Elazar, one person gives charity, but two people get credit — the giver, and the instigator. And it's not a fixed sum game; the giver doesn't get less credit because the instigator gets more.


We can bring other examples of this generosity. For example, many people feel that giving is only truly generous if it is anonymous. But this is not the position of the Jewish sages. While anonymous giving is particularly praiseworthy in the case when it shields the recipient from a feeling of shame before the giver (2), in general it is appropriate and even desirable to publicize the donor. (3)


Finally, Jewish tradition doesn't see anything wrong with giving charity in order that the merit should bring a reward, even an earthly one. "It is taught: one who says, this coin is going to charity in order that my children should thrive, and in order that I may merit the World to Come, he is considered perfectly righteous". (4)


Immediately afterward the Talmud explains that this applies only to someone who understands that he is only expressing a prayer to G-d, not someone with an immature conception of G-d who believes he is making a deal — someone who will feel that G-d has "reneged" if he is found unworthy of the blessing he seeks.


The connection between giving charity and attaining personal success is so tight in Jewish tradition that it almost goes beyond a religious principle into an ordinary rule of nature. The consciousness of the benefit of charity is so ingrained that the Talmud tells us that even simple people were careful to separate their tithes as they were convinced this led to prosperity. (5)


So we should be happy for the tax deduction, and grateful when the countries we live in try to encourage the socially productive of charitable giving by providing one. In this way, whenever we give charity we involve all our fellow citizens likewise in our good deed.

SOURCES: (1) Babylonian Talmud, Bava Basra 9a (2) Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:7 (3) Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:13 (4) Babylonian Talmud, Bava Basra 10b (5) Babylonian Talmud, Taanis 9a .

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JWR contributor Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, formerly of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration, is Research Director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem College of Technology. To comment or pose a question, please click here.

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