Collecting Tzedakah During Davening
Collecting Tzedakah during Davening
Gabo’ei tzedakah, people who collect tzedakah in shuls, perform a very great mitzvah by providing a crucial service. They help us give tzedakah, and “Gadol hame’aseh yoser min ha’oseh,” one who causes others to do a mitzvah is greater than one who performs the mitzvah himself. However, it is inappropriate and unacceptable for them to do so during the times of Birchas Kriyas Shema, the blessings before and after the Shema, chazaras hashatz, during the chazzan’s repetition of the Amidah, or during Kriyas HaTorah, the reading of the Torah. In many shuls, there are takanos, regulations, instituted by the rabbonim, that tzedakah should be collected up to Birchas Kriyas Shema and after chazaras hashatz, but not in between, since collecting during that time would be disturbing the kavanah, concentration, of the congregants at a time when kavanah is crucial. There were Gedolei Yisroel, great sages, who would put down money prior to davening for the gabo’ei tzedakah to collect, thereby fulfilling the mitzvah of tzedakah without being disturbed. #267
https://halacha2go.com?number=267