Here’s a simple practice, that should be relatively easy to do. But as with anything worthwhile, it takes time time to establish its place in your life. So you have to take the time to do it, give it time to develop and not give up when you forget to do it. Just cone back to it and start it again.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that before you eat, put something into the pushka. Puskha is Yiddish for box, and colloquially it means specifically the charity box. The amount is not important; the giving is. My suggestion, because maybe you don’t have a pushka, is to make one. I mean, what could be a better recycling project than that? Maybe even make two or three pushkas, because maybe you want to spread the wealth.
And yes, you can do this practice by donating to a charity via Paypal or with a credit card, but there’s also an important element gained by putting physical coins and dollar bills into a pushka. The jingle-jangle of charity coins is a sacred sound (Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #22:5).
Which charity? That’s a tough call. You have to pray hard to be worthy to give to a worthy Jewish cause. In many ways, it’s a personal call. As a Breslover, I incline to Breslov-related charities/causes/institutions. I’m partial to orphans and widows, with the ordinary poor being next. As you pray, you have to search your heart and mind to get the solution.
And when the money adds up, which it will do after a while, remember to give it to whom you’ve been collecting for!
© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West
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