GEN1282 Rabbi Elazar of Bertotha said: Give Him of His own, for both you and whatever is yours are [entirely] His. And so also in [his prayers] did David say, “For all things are from Thee, and from [the bounty of] Thy hand we have given Thee” 1 Chronicles 29:14 Pirkei Avot III:8   This is indeed a fundamental concept of the Torah: charity, giving to the poor, is simply returning to the Almighty what the Almighty has given to you. The idea is graphically symbolized in the Divine commandment, “When you take the census of the people Israel, then they shall give (v’nath’nu) each man … half a shekel.” Exodus 30:12   The Hebrew word v’nath’nu (ונתנו) is a palindrome, one that reads exactly the same backwards and forwards. This suggests that in giving to the Almighty there is movement in both directions, backward and forward: Money has been given to you; therefore give some back in return. Again, give charity so that in turn you will be further rewarded and blessed. For, in the words of Rabbi Israel Salanter, the poor man’s material problems are our spiritual opportunities.   Furthermore, the cantillation note (trop) on the word v’nath’nu is called kadmah v’azlah, with means literally, “going forward and going back”: this too suggests that if you come forward with charity, reward aplenty will return to you.   There is no doubt that in the view of the Torah, the person who has been blessed from Heaven with a “surplus” of material wealth beyond his needs, is a steward, a caretaker appointed by Providence to provide for the poor, the needy and the destitute.   Rabbi Elhanan Wasserman of blessed memory once gave me a piece of splendid advice: The Torah tells us (he said) to give ten percent of our income to charity, in accordance with the great example of Jacob [this verse] and the laws of ma’aser, the tithe.   The way to do this is to reckon your income at the end of they ear and deposit ten percent of it in a special account, earmarked for charity. Then the money is no longer yours: it belongs to the needy. Hence forth, when a poor man approaches you, it will be much easier for you to give. You are merely distributing what has already been allocated and “removed” from you.   SINAI1 261-2