Keeping the faith and continuing to give
A question I've been asking myself a lot recently is: "Should I give 10% of my income to charity in the midst of a depression?"
To answer this question: I had to dig deep.
When I was 9 years old, my Father got a job as a Rabbi on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was there for a good 17 years, and during that time, set up a charitable fund to fight poverty in Israel.
For a long time, we didn't have a website - it was all 'word of mouth'.
Then, about 4 years ago, I did a coding course, and needed to build up a portfolio - so I actually built the website for the foundation, integrated Paypal, Automated Email receipts... the works. Here's the finished product:
I didn't appreciate it then - but, from an early age, my parents started to engrain within me the importance of giving to others.
But, it was only when I started rolling up my sleeves, and doing something tangible to help the foundation, that I started to appreciate their efforts, and the lessons behind it.
Disclaimer: I'm definitely not a saint, and I still find this Mel Brooks scene to be very funny.
Enter Covid in March 2020
Just about everyone I know is going through the same thing right now. Covid hit 8 months ago - and we're still in it.
The faucet of income suddenly stopped.
Sometimes, the faucet turns back on, but in small sprouts - definitely not as stable as Pre-Covid days. And so, the question arises: should I continue giving 10% to charity if I have no idea how stable the faucet will be?
Having Faith
When I tell my mom, "I'm scared", the answer is always the same: "That's because you don't have faith".
"So, how can I get my faith back?", I ask her.
"By giving to others that have less," she always responds simply.
I'm 32 now, almost 33, and it took me a long time to appreciate the lessons and philosophy she was always trying to give me over the years.
Making A Deal with G-d
Some people give a tenth because they don't want to burn in 'hell' for thousands of years.
For me, it was never about that. If I was going to give - it would have to make sense for me.
After a long dry spell (economically), I started pondering what message G-d was trying to teach me. It's possible that I wasn't very careful to continue giving 10% - even during the good days.
One day, while looking across the hills of Jerusalem, I thought to myself: "Let's see if this works." I gave a little bit to charity.
The next day, I get an email from a client - a big project from a big client - which would last about a month.
Finally, the faucet provided some fresh water.
As the project was coming to a close, I wanted to keep the faucet running, so, I sent the client a proposal for a new project. I pressed the 'Send Email' button, and then texted my mom to immediately give more money to charity on my behalf.
This time I gave a bit more - but it was for a worthy cause - a family that literally didn't have enough money to buy groceries.
The next day, I read the email from the client - he wasn't interested in a new project.
"Send me the invoice. Thanks for your services."
Was it worth it?
Reflecting on these events, I realized that if I had to do it over again - hopefully I would make the same decision.
For me, Covid hasn't been a total waste of time. I've built 3 apps:
Social Shopping for Amazon
Scrape Amazon Search Results
Build Community on Shopify
And I published 2 Udemy courses:
Build a Full-Stack Chrome Extension with NodeJS and MongoDB
Product Management & Marketing for Everyone (with Metabase)
And I'm still trying to make new deals with G-d.
Your relationship with G-d is a private affair.
But for me, I've found that if I want to keep receiving blessings, I need to prove that I can be a channel of blessing for others.