Tzedaka is FUN!

It'll never be one of the top ten songs of the year, but a ditty about charity is a favorite in many Hebrew schools, Sunday schools, camps and day schools. It was composed in the days when all pushkas (charity boxes) were the metal genre - with a keyhole on the bottom - and is accompanied by the shaking of the pushka as much or as little as the child wishes who is currently giving tzedaka (charity). It goes like this:

I'm a little hunk of tin
Every day a penny goes in

I go far and I go near

To help a poor Jew in despair

Clang, clang, jingle, jingle

The mitzva is done

Clang, clang jingle, jingle

Tzedaka is fun

Clang, clang, jingle, jingle

The mitzva is done

Clang, clang jingle, jingle

Tzedaka is fun


We're not going to have an English "lit" class on paper to discuss the song's timbre and rhythm, or the fact that "fun" is repeated and emphasized the last time, imprinting in one's mind the concept that tzedaka is fun. Nor will we bemoan the fact that most tzedaka boxes are no longer "hunks of tin" lessening the simple joy a child gets from shaking the pushka after putting in the tzedaka.
What we will consider, though, is the concept of a penny being able to help.

An organization called "Common Cents" created the idea of Penny Harvests which to date take place in 150 schools throughout the United States. In May they raised $27,518 and donated it to four organizations providing disaster relief in Haiti.

We all know that $27,518 won't save Haiti or stop world hunger. Nor is it enough to find the cure for even one cancer. And it won't pay the yearly operating costs of a women's shelter.

But $27,518 is a start. In fact, Since its inception in 1991, children between the ages of four and 14 have collected pennies and donated $7.7 million to community organizations through Penny Harvests! So, just as $27,518 is a start, so is a penny or a nickel, a dime or a quarter, in the pushka every day (except Shabbat and Jewish holidays).

Don't either belittle the actual deed of putting the coins in the pushka. For, although the amount in the tzedaka box is definitive, the ramifications and reward are unlimited.

Jewish teachings explain, "These are the precepts, the fruits of which man enjoys in this world, while the principal reward remains in the World to Come... performing deeds of kindness."

Knowing that there is a reward in the World to Come for deeds of kindness such as charity doesn't do it for most of us.

But how about the "fruits" in this world? They are unlimited.

Each time you give even one single penny you are: connecting with G-d; refining your character traits; becoming a kinder, more sensitive person; creating positive energy; and bringing non-material spirituality into our very material world.

Give tzedaka every day. Watch how the pennies grow and how you grow by doing this mitzva.