It is quite difficult to give tzedakah for its own sake
The tzedakah circulars and notices are ubiquitous: Give, so that your daughter will find a proper match; so that you will find healing for your disease, so that your new venture should succeed…
Just wondering: I always thought, perhaps naively, that our service of G-d should be without strings attached. Is it not a degradation of a holy mitzvah to sell it like toothpaste? Use this cream to make yourself attractive, give to this tzedakah to engender favorable results for you. All the accepted Madison Avenue advertising techniques are mobilized: Eight-color brochures, endless repetition, promises of benefits, robocalls, endorsements by famous figures who will pray for us, photos of famous personalities giving to this tzedakah. All the stratagems except money-back guarantees — so far….
Which leads to a question: Am I performing this mitzvah as a quid pro quo with my Creator? And if He does not keep His end of the bargain and I don’t find a good match for my daughter, then what?
Whatever happened to the purity of our way of life? Do we only give tzedakah because it will in some way benefit us? Does not this mean that I give with conditions attached? I will do this, dear G-d, but I expect You to do that in return. What happened to the Sages’ comment in Avos I:3: “Al tiheyu ka’avadim… al menas l’kabel pras — Do not be like servants who serve the Master for the sake of receiving a reward.”
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