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DEUTERONOMY | 23:25 eat — DEUT1310 The Satmar Rebbe compares the Jew accumu...

DEUT1310 The Satmar Rebbe compares the Jew accumulating wealth in this world to the worker in the field that produces fruits (Quoted in "Priorities in Tzedaka," Rabbi Moshe Goldberger, 2007, pp. 41-42). The Torah permits the worker to eat from those fruits that he is picking, as long as the worker is working and remains in the field [this verse]. Maimonides requires as part of Jewish law that the owner gives food to his worker while performing this task (Maimonides, Hilchot Sechirut 12:1). But this Jewish law does not apply to a worker performing any other task in the field (such as fence building) or after a particular task is complete. The Jew in the physical world, says the Satmar Rebbe, is similarly, working for God in "His field" (the world) to accumulate funds in order to give some of them to Tzedaka. As long as the Jew is engaged in this work, he too is permitted to use these Tzedaka funds for his own benefit--i.e., he can receive something for giving them away, just as the worker can use what he is picking for his benefit. Thus, a Jew can "control" these earned charity funds by making conditions for how they are spent.

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Source KeyAMJV
Verse23:25
Keyword(s)eat
Source Page(s)146
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