Project Overview:
This project's purpose is to help all Jews in need. The Greater Miami Jewish Federation will divide the money me and my partner raise to multiple Jewish causes that provide to Jews that need help financially. We will raise this money by having a bake sale. We are going to be doing the bake sale at founders park, surfside park and around our neighborhoods for the next few sunday's. We made a facebook page, an instagram account, flyers and we let all our friends and family know in order to spread the word about our bake sale for this great cause. Our goal is to raise $1,000 to give to the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.
כבוד הבריות חביב עד מאד אין לך מדה חביבה ממנה
Human dignity is extremely precious - there is nothing more valuable than it.
Explanation: Human dignity is one of the most valuable and important characteristics a human can possess. To have human dignity is to have the characteristic of being worthy of honor and respect. You can have every object or trait in the world but if you don't have human dignity then what is it worth. From this source we learn to make sure everyone's human dignity stays intact. As the source says" there is nothing more valuable than it."Which is from the Rishonim (Early Commentaries on the Gemara) and the Rulings of the Shulchan Aruch.
Connection: Our connection to peoples dignity through our project is that the people who will receive our donations will not know it came from us. By them not knowing that our donations are coming from us, we are being respectful and usually when people give donations the people who receive it say thank you this way we are not getting a thankyou and the only people who know we donated is us and Hashem. This will also prevent the people who receive our donations from being embarrassed. By doing everything in our control to prevent them from being embarrassed we are partaking in helping to keep their dignity intact. Keeping their dignity intact is one of our main intentions and the most important thing to me about this project.
Rambam, Matantot Aniyim 10:7-14
(ח) פָּחוֹת מִזֶּה הַנּוֹתֵן צְדָקָה לָעֲנִיִּים וְלֹא יָדַע לְמִי נָתַן וְלֹא יָדַע הֶעָנִי מִמִּי לָקַח. שֶׁהֲרֵי זוֹ מִצְוָה לִשְׁמָהּ. כְּגוֹן לִשְׁכַּת חֲשָׁאִים שֶׁהָיְתָה בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ. שֶׁהָיוּ הַצַּדִּיקִים נוֹתְנִין בָּהּ בַּחֲשַׁאי וְהָעֲנִיִּים בְּנֵי טוֹבִים מִתְפַּרְנְסִין מִמֶּנָּה בַּחֲשַׁאי. וְקָרוֹב לָזֶה הַנּוֹתֵן לְתוֹךְ קֻפָּה שֶׁל צְדָקָה. וְלֹא יִתֵּן אָדָם לְתוֹךְ קֻפָּה שֶׁל צְדָקָה אֶלָּא אִם כֵּן יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁהַמְמֻנֶּה נֶאֱמָן וְחָכָם וְיוֹדֵעַ לְהַנְהִיג כַּשּׁוּרָה כְּרַבִּי חֲנַנְיָה בֶּן תְּרַדְיוֹן:
(8) One level lower than this is one who gives tzedakah to the poor and does not know to whom he gives, and the poor person does not know from whom he receives.187Maimonides holds the anonymity of both giver and receiver of great importance, but he does not require anonymity at the highest level of giving. This is perhaps because the highest level of giving addresses the source of poverty whereas giving something to a beggar only alleviates a person's temporary need. Preventing poverty is therefore of such importance that anonymity becomes secondary in that instance. This is purely a mitzvah for its own sake, such as the Chamber of Secrets in the Holy Temple, for there the righteous would give in secret [and leave], and the poor, of good background, would sustain themselves from it in secret. Very close to this is one who gives to the kupah of tzedakah, but one should not contribute to the kupah of tzedakah unless one is certain that the one who counts it is trustworthy and wise and behaves competently, as was Rabbi Chanania ben Teradion.188See Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 10b and Avodah Zarah 17b. Rabbi Chanania ben Teradion had a reputation for competence and honesty, so he dealt with the collection and distribution of charity funds. He was later tortured and executed by the Romans.
Explanation: The 2nd level of Tzedaka is the level were the person who is providing the money knows who the money is going to, but the receiver does not know who gave it, which humbles the person giving it and shows dignity. Also, by doing this level of Tzedaka the person who is receiving the money does not feel like he is obligated to thank the person who is giving the money and nor shall they be embarrassed.This level of Tzedaka is considered to be a higher level then when the receiver knows who the giver is and the giver does't know who the receiver is, because it's better when the receiver doesn't know who gave it them so that it is Kavod Habriyot.
Connection: The connection is that we do not know exactly who we are giving the money to but we know the organization that it is going to and we know that it is going towards a great cause. That is why our project is on the second and not the first level of tzedka. They don't know who the money is coming from and we don't necessarily know the exact person who will be receiving it. We are also going to be mailing the organization the check with the money purposely so that in case someone receiving care is their they will not see us.
Source from the Contemporary Poskim (Halakhic Decis
Explanation
Explanation: Everyone has limits on how far he/she is willing to go to do chesed. A big part of chesed is extending your boundaries on how much chesed you are willing to do. It is usually a challenge to go even farther then what your comfortable with, especially if you don't even know the person you may be doing chesed for. You also have to remember that even if you don't have a personal connection with the person you are doing chesed for you are still both Jews and your connected through Hashem.
Connection: We are doing our best to go out of our way and go out of our comfort zone to do as much chesed as possible. WWe are going beyond our limits of cheesed. We do simple things of cheesed everyday, but for this project we are going beyond our boundaries to do this. It may be a simple task, but never the less it's extending our limits of cheesed. Going beyond our limits for this project will extend our limits further. It might just a little, but a little goes a long way.