A Collector's Collection
Humorous & Uplifting Stories Told by One of Today's Top Fund-
Raisers
Jerusalem Publications
272 pages
Knock, knock.
If you live in a religious neighborhood, you'll probably hear
the sound of the tzedokoh collector at your door a few
times a night. It's well known that b'nei Torah give
tzedokoh well out of proportion to their modest
incomes. Many a wedding and hospital bill have been paid from
the pooled donations of thousands of small contributors.
What about the larger bills that must be paid? When it comes
to our Torah institutions — our yeshivas, girls'
schools, special-education centers and free-loan funds, to
name just a few — the task of paying the bills falls
squarely on the shoulders of the Torah fund-raiser who
journeys abroad for days, weeks and even months at a time.
Armed with a list of contacts, a trove of choice
vertlach and a ready wit, he brings the mitzva
of tzedokoh straight to the donor's doorstep and
leaves each contributor immeasurably enriched by the
experience.
When he returns home from his travels, you can be sure that
this fund-raiser has lots of good stories to tell. You'll
find many of them in a new book by Rabbi Chaim Orange,
veteran fund-raiser for Yeshivas Torah Ore in Jerusalem.
Aptly titled, A Collector's Collection, this
delightful book is chock-full of original and entertaining
stories, amazing examples of Hashgochoh pratis and
precious vignettes of our gedolim who taught by
example the value of giving.
Rabbi Orange takes us right into donors' homes and offices to
witness the funny, poignant and "not to be believed" stories
that really happened to him and other fund-raisers. For
example, one fund-raiser tapped all his ingenuity to get past
a waiting room of people to see the wealthy Reb Asher. He
promised the man's personal assistant that if he was
admitted, he would only say one word.
Seeing that he was serious, the assistant let him in. When
the fund-raiser entered the rich man's private room, Reb
Asher asked him what he wanted.
The fund-raiser cryptically responded with one word:
"Gemora."
"Just what is that supposed to mean?" Reb Asher asked.
The fund-raiser smiled and said, "It stands for 'Good
Morning, Reb Asher.'"
Then, without missing a beat, he repeated the word:
"Gemora."
Amused, Reb Asher played along. "What does it mean now?"
This time the fund-raiser answered, "Give Me, Reb Asher."
Reb Asher good-naturedly handed him a donation, but the fund-
raiser didn't budge. Instead, he repeated for the third time,
"Gemora."
By now Reb Asher was getting impatient, but his curiosity
made him ask, "What does it mean this time?"
With a smile, the fund-raiser said, "Give More, Reb
Asher!"
Our gedolim also knew the art of quick thinking. Once,
a donor gave the Satmar Rav, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, $47. When
the Rebbe asked him how he had come up with that figure, the
would-be donor said that it was the gematria of the
Rebbe's name, Yoel.
"If that's the case," countered the Rebbe, "you can call me
Yoelish." (The gematria of Yoelish, the name by which
the Rebbe was affectionately known, is 357.)
A Torah fund-raiser, noted Reb Chaim of Volozhin, is also an
unofficial Torah ambassador. As he travels from place to
place, retelling vertlach and sharing stories of the
yeshiva with people far and wide, he inspires and illuminates
the Jewish world. Rav Moshe Aharon Stern, zt"l, who
maintained a heavy travel schedule on behalf of Yeshivas
Kaminetz, was a prime example of a fund-raiser who had a big
impact on everyone he met.
Once, a fellow he didn't recognize approached him on the
street in Eretz Yisroel saying, "Shalom aleichem. Do
you by any chance remember me?" The man went on without
waiting for an answer. "You were in England, weren't you?
Didn't you once give a speech at Jack Levinson's house on
Tisha B'Av for the people of Stamford Hill?
"I heard you speak in English, and I was drawn to what you
were saying. My wife was not Jewish, which meant that my
children weren't either. I had plenty of money. I owned a few
supermarkets that were open seven days a week. Yet I was so
inspired by your talk that I became a baal teshuva. My
wife and children converted, I sold my business and we made
aliya. My children all learn in yeshivas now, and it was all
because of that talk you gave."
As he shares his own "insider tips" for successful fund-
raising, Rabbi Orange beautifully weaves in stories of
gedolim from all continents and time periods. Along
the way he turns the spotlight back on us, the givers, to
impress upon us the great benefits and rewards of
tzedokoh.
"Many people came to the Vilna Gaon for advice or a
blessing," he notes. "He would always ask them for money, not
for himself, but rather because giving tzedokoh would
help them. The Chofetz Chaim says it's not so much the
blessing that helps, but the charity."
Here is much food for thought about the best way to fulfill a
mitzva that is equivalent to all the other
mitzvos of the Torah (Bava Basra 9b). Who will
not be moved by this observation from Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel,
the Alter of Slobodka, who showed special concern for the
poor and handicapped: "What will you do if, just as you
arrive at your home and are greeted by your whole family, a
poor, ugly man approaches you for help? You'll surely be
upset that precisely at this moment this man has come to
bother you, and in your great generosity, you'll give him
something to get rid of him.
"But this is not what halacha requires of us. It
states, 'Bring home the poor,' and Chazal say that 'the poor
should be members of your household.' Precisely when you are
rejoicing with your family, this is when you should see the
poor as members of your family and greet them with joy.
"Moreover, you should give the poor even more attention, and
treat them with love and warmth, because while you will see
your own family whenever you return home, who knows whether
you'll have the opportunity to meet these poor people again
in your life?"
There are people who question whether some collectors are
really as needy as they claim to be. Like the many other
subjects he raises, Rabbi Orange explores this issue honestly
and thoughtfully. The bottom line: tzedokoh is too
great a mitzva to pass over. Giving money to someone
who is not legitimate takes nothing away from our own olom
habbo.
Indeed, the Shpoler Zeide used to give all of his money to
the poor, even to poor thieves. When he was asked how he felt
justified giving money to known criminals, he would answer,
"When it comes time for me to pass on, if I find the gates of
mercy locked, I'll send for those same thieves to pick the
locks."
In truth, when we open the door and find a tzedokoh
collector standing there, we aren't doing him a favor by
responding positively to his cause. Rather, he is doing us a
favor, because he brings us the opportunity to earn more
merits on a silver platter. This stunning collection of
collectors' stories will surely inspire each of us to greet
that next knock at the door with a smile.
