Q. Rabbenu Long Life. Thanks for answering my recent shailos.
I manage a few buildings that have as tenants a large group of members of communities from across the Caribbean including Jamaica and many of the tenants families are suffering and recovering from the damage done recently by Hurricane Melissa. They are collecting for their help and I fill obliged also to help them.
I have a number of Shailos that require an expert accepted Halacha answer. Firstly, do I have to contribute to their collections in the same amounts that they contribute or can I just give a small amount, just to be “yotzeh”?
A. Rema in Sulchan Aruch Y.D. 251:1, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 34:3., based on Talmud Gittin 28a that rules:
ת"ר: מפרנסים עניי נכרים עם עניי ישראל, ומבקרין חולי נכרים עם חולי ישראל, וקוברין מתי נכרים עם
מתי ישראל, מפני דרכי שלום"" -
“Our Sages ruled that: We should give non-Jews food and clothing just like they give to Jews, also we should visit their ill and provide burial for their deceased because of "Darchei Shalom," promoting positive peaceful relations with Gentiles.
Ran (ibid.) explains that one should support poor non-Jews even if they're not asking together with Jewish poor people. However, the Mordechai (cited by Darkei Moshe 251:1) argues that only if the Jewish and non-Jewish poor are requesting simultaneously and it would be apparent that one wouldn't give to a Gentile, then one should give to the non-Jew as well.
Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 151:12 and Shach 251:2 rule like the Ran. Gra 251:2 understands the Rama to hold like the Mordechai but personally seems to agree with the Ran.
The Talmud [Gitin 61a] states that we should feed the poor non-Jew among the Jewish poor for the sake of peace with our non-Jewish neighbors and the Rema [YD 251:1] wrote it as practical Halacha.
See next question.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a
Important Numbers
