Reb Zushe teaches “Do Not judge who you are giving Tzedaka to.”
Harav Chaim Halberstam, the Tzanzer Rov, author of the Divrei Chayim, supported Talmidei Chachamim -known as Yoshvim- entirely. They sat all day in the Bais Hamedrash and studied. One night, during the seudah, a homeless begger came in and sat himself at the table and began to eat without restraint. The Yoshvim had respect for the Tzanzer Rov, who was standing nearby, and they didn’t dare stop the man from eating so much. Eventually the Tzanzer Rov finally stepped in and said to the man, rather sternly, “That’s not how a Yid eats!”
The homeless man got insulted, and he said to the Tzanzer Rov, “How am I worse than the Yoshvim here? They eat here all year and no one says a thing. This is my first time eating here and already you’re giving me mussar? The homeless man angrily ran away from the table, and the Bais Hamedrash. The Tzanzer Rov immediately told the Gabbay to run after the homeless man, and bring him back to him.
The man returned, and the Tzanzer Rov began to beg him to forgive him. “I didn’t mean to insult you. Nor did I want you to eat less. All I asked was to eat like a yid eats.” The Tzanzer Rov saw that the yid wasn’t consoled yet. He took out 30 gulden, which was a lot of money in those days, and gave it to the homeless man so that he would be moichel him. The homeless man was astounded as he had never in his life seen that much money, realized that the Divrei Chaim honestly felt bad, and said he forgives the Rebbe full hearted, and left joyfully. The Tzanzer Rov returned to his house with a soothed heart.
The son of the Divrei Chayim, Harav Boruch of Gorlitz, said to his father, amazed, “Wouldn’t it have been enough to get the homeless man’s forgiveness with one or two gulden? Why did you need to give him so much money?”
Let me tell you a story that happened to the Rebbe Reb Zusha of Annipoli which will help you understand why I did what I did. “The Rebbe Reb Zusha, was detached from this world almost entirely. As a result, he was poor, and there was never any bread in his house. He had a neighbor who ran an inn. The neighbor’s wife saw the poverty of the Reb Zusha, and told her husband about the bare condition of his house. They both decided to bring the Reb Zusha’s rebbetzin some money each week so that they could live. From that week they saw a blessing in their lives. They immediately understood that this was in the merit of supporting Reb Zusha and his family. They built a house for Reb Zusha and his family next to the inn, and settled them there. Reb Zusha now had the ease of mind to focus on serving Hashem without anything disturbing him. The inn kept growing in success, and the innkeeper and his family kept growing in riches.
However, the Satan didn’t like it. He received permission to test the innkeeper. He disguised himself as a tzaddik, dressed entirely in white, and came to the inn. The innkeeper received the ‘tzaddik’ very warmly, and was very happy to take such a guest into the inn. As the guest entered, he heard someone in a side room davening very loudly. He asked the innkeeper, ‘What’s the the noise?’ “The innkeeper answered, I support a poor yid who davens and learns the whole day so he has no worries to disturb him from serving Hashem. That’s his voice you’re hearing.’’ The Satan exclaimed: "Supporting a poor, lazy man who’s looking for a way out of work and out of earning parnassah for his wife and children, is a poor excuse for a mitzvah, I can assure you!’
These words began to sink in the innkeeper. He thought about it all night. He decided his guest, the ‘tzaddik’ was right, and he resolved to follow his advice. The next day, immediately in the morning, he told Reb Zusha that he needs to look for someone else to support him. He had given him enough already. Reb Zusha didn’t say a word. He once again resumed his old way of wandering from place to place and relying on Yidden to give him bread to eat. Lo and behold, from that day the bracha in the inn grew weaker. In a short while, he had lost everything. Not only did he not have enough to support anyone, he didn’t even have enough for him and his family to live.
The time passed, and Reb Zusha became revealed to the world. Yidden from the entire area came to spend time in Annipoli by Reb Zusha, and were helped by the tzaddik. Among them the innkeeper also came to ask for a yeshuah. “As soon as he recognized Reb Zusha as the poor neighbor he had supported, he began to cry bitterly, and he told him everything. Reb Zusha gave a krechtz, a groan, and said to the innkeeper, ‘You have to understand, when you took Zusha and his family in, you did it without checking if he was worth supporting. You opened your gave him without checking his level. So Hashem paid you measure for measure. They poured on you an abundance of good without checking whether you were worth it. That brought you and brachah and wealth. But from the moment that you didn’t withstand the test, when you failed the test that the Satan set for you, and you let him convince you to start looking only for well-known tzaddikim, they began to check you too in heaven, to see if you were worth it. They checked your entire life, and based on how you looked, they decided to take away from you the wealth they had given you and they also gave it to someone else.’”
The Tzanzer Rov finished the story, and said to the Gorlitzer Rov, “If I were to behave as you want me to, if I were to give my money only to people who are talmidei chachomim, they will make such judgments about me also. Now, since I’m not careful about that, and I give tzedakah to homeless people like that with a generous hand, Hashem will treat me with a generous hand as well.
