3,000 Charity Boxes Distributed in New Jersey to Inspire Daily Giving

by Faygie Levy Holt – chabad.org

Friendship Circle of New Jersey is distributing 3,000 charity boxes to homes in the region, honoring the instruction of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—that people everywhere, especially children, should give tzedakah on a daily basis— a worldwide initiative that began 50 years ago, during the Yom Kippur War.

On Oct. 7, 1973, a day after Egypt’s invasion of the Sinai, the Rebbe directed Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim throughout the Holy Land to serve as his personal representatives and visit Israel Defense Forces soldiers wherever permitted, and bring them encouragement and blessing. He instructed the Chassidim to take coins with them as gifts for the soldiers, so that they would have the ability to give tzedakah even while on the front lines, where it is often difficult to fulfill this mitzvah. Thereby, the Rebbe wrote, they would bring G‑d’s blessings and protection.

In a public talk that week, the Rebbe expanded the initiative to include the Jewish people as a whole, suggesting that everyone, including children, should give tzedakah on a daily basis.

Thus was launched one of the Rebbe’s 10-point mitzvah campaigns, mivtzah tzedakah.

The Friendship Circle project, called Tzedakah@Home, was also inspired by a personal interaction between Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum—executive director of Chabad of Livingston, N.J., and the local Friendship Circle—and the Rebbe, when Grossbaum was just 4 years old.

“I was standing outside of the Rebbe’s office at 770 waiting for him to pass by, and he came out and handed me a coin to give to tzedakah,” Grossbaum told Chabad.org. “There was a big tzedakah box on the wall. Since I was such a big boy, all of 4 years old, I decided I wanted to drop it into the slot on top of the tzedakah box. I stood on my tip-toes trying to reach it, and the Rebbe was standing there just watching and waiting. Finally, someone lifted me up, and I dropped the coin in. When I turned around, the Rebbe had a huge smile on his face.”

The Physical Act of a Mitzvah

“That engagement in tangible mitzvah is so important,” says Grossbaum. “The more ‘connected’ we become, the less connected we truly are. And even the most generous of philanthropists have children who never see them giving tzedakah because it is all done with a credit card swipe.”

That’s in contrast to putting coins in a pushka, he explains, noting that “physically touching a coin and hearing it clang as it drops to the bottom of the tzedakah box is a is a sensory experience, and is so important in transmitting Yiddishkeit to the next generation.”

Local mom Sara Greenstein was among those who received the new tzedakah box, which she proudly placed next to her candlesticks for Shabbat. “The tzedakah box is beautiful,” said the mother of two. “It’s the old-school way of giving, like I grew up with. Nowadays if you are raising money for something you pay by Venmo, credit card or check. The kids don’t see it.”

And when they are young like Greenstein’s children—ages 10 and 5—they don’t necessarily understand when they are told that their parents made a donation online.

“I feel doing things the old-school way makes kids more wholesome, because in reality the more you put Judaism in your home, the more kids will grasp it,” Greenstein said.

Each Tzedakah@Home kit includes a lucite tzedakah box with artwork designed by a mixed-media artist from Australia, Hendel Futefas, and two pennies.

The word tzedakah on the front of the box is outlined by rising flames on the back of the box. It is a nod to a Jewish teaching that following the sin of the Golden Calf, G‑d commanded Moses to count the Jews, each of whom would give a coin.

Moses questioned the use of a coin, and G‑d showed him a coin made from a flame. According to teachings of the Rebbe, when a person earns their livelihood, they utilize their entire being. Thus, when they give tzedakah they are doing it with the entirety of their being, says Grossbaum.

Noting that the word tzedakah comes from the Hebrew word tzedek, meaning “righteous,” he says, “G‑d gave us these resources because we are meant to perfect the world, to elevate the world through these acts.”

Engaging Families in Giving

The goal of the campaign, he adds, is not to raise funds for Friendship Circle—which provides friendship, support and inclusion for people with special needs and their families—as the instructions that come with the box make clear. “We want people to fill it up and give it to the charity of their choice. Families should be engaged in the giving. As a family, everyone should decide how to allocate it based on their own priorities.”

“Just like the kids filled up the tzedakah box, they should also be involved in deciding where it goes,” he continues. “These actions will spiritually change the world and also psychologically inspire people to think about others and be more giving.”

Grossbaum also hopes that people will be inspired to encourage others by gifting them a tzedakah box of their own, thereby becoming ambassadors, “shluchim,” if you will, themselves.

The FCNJ Mitzvah Tzedakah campaign is the third phase of the group’s Judaism@Home initiative to encourage people to do mitzvot on their own. The first project was a Shabbat@Home project in which thousands of Jews in Essex, Morris and Union counties ushered in the day of rest with Shabbat candle-lighting, Kiddush and a Shabbat meal in their own homes. That program was held in April 2022 to mark the 120th anniversary of the Rebbe’s birth.

The second push focused on family purity laws and included a women-only annual event to raise awareness of the role of the mikvah in a Jewish marriage, along with visits to Mikvah Chana in Livingston, N.J., not far from the Friendship Circle of New Jersey.

The Judaism@Home program is underwritten by an anonymous donor.

One of the volunteers who helped pack and prepare the kits for distribution, Howard Charish, says they are the complete package, right down to the two starter pennies.

“Jews are known as a people of deed and as such that means we express ourselves through acts of lovingkindness or mitzvot, tzedakah is one of the highest deeds the project that Friendship Circle has developed is spectacular. From the project’s creation to production to use, it is a completely developed deed of kindness.

“It is really beautiful,” Charish continues. “Anyone would be proud to have it on their shelf, and what I also like about it is that it is translucent so you can see your mitzvot piling up day after day after day.”