GEN1277 To encourage people to make donations, Jewish law permits making conditional vows to charity: I will donate [state the amount] to charity if such-and-such happens.”   Rabbi Moses Isserles, the Ramah (sixteenth century), explains: “If a person says, ‘If so-and-so, who is deathly ill, will be cured…I will donate such-and-such to charity,’ but then the sick person dies, the person is not obliged to fulfill his vow because it was clearly conditional” Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 220:15.   Normally, setting conditions for one’s observance of a Jewish law is prohibited.  Thus, it is forbidden to say, “I’ll observe the Sabbath if I become rich” since Jews are obliged to observe the Sabbath whether they are poor or rich. [Therefore, we are permitted to set conditions only for that portion of charity that is over and above that which we are expected to give [i.e. a minimum of 10%; see 28:22].  That Jewish law allows such conditional vows underscores how eager the Rabbis were to encourage charitable giving by any means necessary.   TELVOL2:164