Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Ki Savo

Money Order

September 11, 2025

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Yaakov Meir Levi

When you have finished tithing every tithe of your produce of the third year, the year of the tithe, and you will have given to the levi, to the convert, to the orphan, and to the widow, and they will have eaten in your cities and will have been satisfied.

Dvarim 26:12

Chazal derive from this mitzvah of ma’aser ani and other psukim that everyone is obligated to give tzedakah. Though the absolute minimum one must give is a third of a shekel per year, he must give a sum commensurate with his earnings. If someone does not have sufficient funds for his own household, it takes precedence over others.

There is a hierarchy among tzedakah recipients. For example, relatives take precedence over others. If similar-degree relatives, such as a brother and sister, are in need of financial assistance, women are usually given precedence, because it is more embarrassing for a woman to collect door-to-door than for a man.

Precedence also depends upon the need. If two similar relatives require tzedakah, but one needs food and the other clothing, food takes precedence. But relatives take precedence over others even if the non-relative needs food and the relative only clothing.

Aniyei ircha, the poor of one’s own city, come before outsiders. (For this purpose, one who has lived in a city for at least twelve months is considered a local.) The poor of Eretz Yisrael take precedence over other outsiders, but not over aniyei ircha. And the poor of Yerushalayim are ahead of those from elsewhere in Eretz Yisrael if they are similarly lacking.