Reallocation of Tzedakah Funds

Question

Boruch Hashem, I have a good income and I give a chomesh to tzedakah. Up until now, I have been giving all of my tzedakah — $5,000 a month — to three night kollelim. There are a few reasons why I would like to change my policy and start giving less money to more kollelim. One reason is that I would like to diversify my funds to more tzedakos. Is there any problem at all for me to do this?

Thank you.P. M.

Rav Auerbach 

The poskim write that the two best ways to fulfill the mitzvah of maaser and chomesh are by giving to poor families or to talmidei chachomim. Therefore, if you can give to poor talmidei chachomim, that is ideal.

Once you are directing your tzedakah funds in that direction, you may distribute the funds as you wish. The fact that you have given all of your tzedakah money in the past to three kollelim does not obligate you to continue doing so in the future. If you want to give less money to more yeshivos and kollelim, that is perfectly fine.

Rav Zafrani 

I am in complete agreement with Rav Auerbach on this question. The only point I would add is that since you were providing the entire budget for these three kollelim, it would be mentchlich to make a slow, gradual reduction of funds rather than stopping all funding at once. The reason for this is that pulling out all of your support at once would likely force them to close down.

There is, in fact, a daas Torah source for ensuring that all funding for Torah does not come from one place. When Menachem Begin became prime minister, he wanted the government to pay 100% of the costs of yeshivos and kollelim. When Rav Shach was consulted, he said that this was not the right path to take. The reason was that if the government paid 100% of these budgets, it could withdraw its support at any time, leading to the collapse of the Olam HaTorah. Rather, the government should fund a percentage, with the remainder coming from private sources.

In our times, we have seen the great wisdom of Rav Shach, as the Israeli government has indeed cut off Torah funding numerous times.