money for Torah

Anyone who believes in his heart that one ought occupy oneself with Torah and not work, but support oneself with charity, behold, this one desecrates the Divine name, dishonors the Torah, extinguishes the light of faith, brings evil to oneself and forfeits life in the world to come, because it is forbidden to benefit from the words of Torah in this world. (Mishneh Torah)

Rambam says that taking money for Torah extinguishes the light of faith. How does that work? Dovid HaMelech said, "All Your mitzvot are faithful." (Tehillim 119) They bring us to faith. The money for Torah business has created an ethic that mitzvos don't matter very much. What matters is Torah study. |This is how many fundraisers, Roshei Yeshiva among them, believe that they must craft their message. They push aside mitzvos and rave on all day long about Torah. That's how you get baalei batim to give their money, you tell them that Torah is everything and since they don't have much time to study it, they'll gain a share in it by donating their money. This diminishes mitzvos and extinguishes the light of faith. It is reminiscent of the Catholic Church pushing its members to give money to the Church to attain salvation.

But it's a mistake. Baalei batim face challenges in mitzvos from being out in the world. They struggle daily with a 1000 tests of honesty, with getting to Mincha, with kashrus, with remembering that parnassah comes from Hashem, with assimilation to the gentile culture that surrounds them, and with issues concerning the opposite sex -- men not staring at women and women being modest. Whether or not they handle these correctly (and with mitzvos deemphasized how could they?), they feel guilt in their hearts. Some can't handle the guilt and turn cold toward the entire religion to numb themselves.

If Torah is presented according to the translation of the word -- instruction -- then it becomes relevant to their lives. Oh, the Torah will guide me in all of these situations. The Torah will inspire me in faith. This is more effective than tired old speeches about the sweetness of the daf, the magic effect of deep lomdus on the higher worlds, or the majesty of gadolim. That talk sounds thrilling but rings empty for many. It's hard to get true sweetness of the daf in an hour or in a daf Yomi shiur which consists mostly of passive listening. The baal habayis doesn't see gadolim very much, if at all. You can't build the whole religion around the sight of them. 

We can talk about Torah but in a way that connects to the mitzvos that baalei batim are concerned about. Then, we are not extinguishing the light of faith. My expectation is that this approach will lead to bigger donations because we are speaking to people in a way that resonates with them rather than in a way that speaks to people who are currently in yeshivos all day long and don't face the same kinds of challenges.