[Maaser] is not giving a tenth of your money. [Maaser] is accepting the obligation to give it.
More moments · 6
Ep 32Your yeshiva charges $25,000 but your kid costs $10,000. Here's how the difference can count as maaserRabbi Yosef Kushner
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Your yeshiva charges $25,000 but your kid costs $10,000. Here's how the difference can count as maaser
Ep 32Maaser isn't giving 10%. It's accepting the obligation to give it.Rabbi Yosef Kushner
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Maaser isn't giving 10%. It's accepting the obligation to give it.
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Quotes
“It's a debt. As soon as money comes in, you have an obligation.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner (on the maaser custom, which works on an accrual basis)
“The first thing you need to do, no matter what your income is, is you need to have a place a bank account to deposit 10%.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner
“When you have a bank account, you're going to give and it's never going to get empty.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner
“I find a lot of times that people who don't separate it, they don't really give.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner
“You can't have a partner without a bank account.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner (on treating Hashem as an investor in your business)
“A person shouldn't give to the point where he might have to come on to other people.”
Rabbi Yosef Kushner (on the limit of giving a fifth)
Takeaways
1 Torah-level maaser applied to crops and animals in Israel and was given from the gross. Today's maaser on money (maaser kesafim) is a custom recorded by the Rishonim, starting with the Maharam of Rothenberg, and is given from net income.
2 According to him it is a binding custom of the Jewish people: you can't opt out.
3 Maaser works like a debt (accrual): if you earned $2 million, you owe $200,000 even if the money was already spent. The general mitzvah of tzedakah goes by the cash you have now.
4 The Gemara in Taanis allows 'testing' Hashem with maaser. People with maaser accounts tell him giving seems to bring more money in.
5 His formula: treat Hashem as a partner in your business. Money left in and later lost owes nothing; distributions already taken still owe maaser.
6 A syndicator who rolls his 1% fee into the deal has still earned it, so it owes maaser.
7 The usual limit is a fifth (20%) so you won't come to need others. Some allow the very wealthy to give more, but he worries very high giving could discourage work.
8 Deductions depend on what you actually take home: business meals come off (Aruch HaShulchan), but health insurance paid personally doesn't.
9 Maaser is on money, not on gifts of items. Earmarked gifts (rent paid, a car bought for you) are different from a cash gift you can spend freely.
10 Paying maaser in advance is fine; it's like lending to your maaser fund. Using maaser for a shul kiddush is, in his view, not a good use.