In today's daf Rabbi Elazar says: One who gives bread to someone without understanding, afflictions will come on him - "Lachmecha Yasimu Mazor Tachtecha Ein Tevunah Bo."
This statement gave me pause because of my wife's work for Tomchei Shabbos. Tomchei Shabbos gives food to Jews, and doesn't question which of them does or may not have daas. The people involved with Tomchei Shabbos take the customers who get referred by their rabbis, and do not examine their customers. Should the Tomchei Shabbos workers be concerned about Rabbi Elazar's statement? If no, why not?
Alan Kandel, St. Louis USA
Shalom Alan,
You are learning Agadeta the way we're supposed to -- things we learn from Chazal should be taken seriously and learned like Halachah.
My answer to your question is based on what can be found in the Maharsha and Maharal and other Mefarshei Agadah.
Obviously, Rebbi Eliezer is not ruling that one should be cruel to a person who has no Da'as. It is unthinkable that a person who is not wise and is poor should not be given charity or food.
Indeed, some say that Da'as in this context refers to Yir'as Shamayim, and it is forbidden to feed a person who does not fear Hash-m. However, the commentators I mentioned seem to go a different way or at least to a different depth. It seems that this is not about simply giving bread to a hungry person, but rather sharing one's own bread ("Pito"). The problem with connecting with a person who has no Da'as, or showing mercy to someone who does not deserve mercy, is that the person's mental powers, expressed in the fact that it is about the person's own bread, go to the wrong place, and just as we know that one should not pity the cruel, so one should not connect with a person who has no Da'as -- that is, who lacks the form of a man ("Adam") who is distinguished from the animals by having Da'as. The idea here is not related to charity or feeding the hungry, but to the mental connection of the giver with the recipient.
Your wife's philanthropic actions do not create a connection with the recipient, since her entire goal is to feed the hungry with bread and food or money that her wonderful organization distributes. Here we are talking about a person who shares his own food, as an expression of the fact that the person shares with the recipient on a spiritual level, and establishes a true connection with him. Such a connection is not successful, and as the Maharal says, if a person's merciful powers go to a bad place, he suffers torment because when the Midas ha'Chesed is impaired, the Midas ha'Din increases, and torment derives from the Midas ha'Din.
Another less conceptual and more simple answer can be given according to what we find in the Gemara in Bava Basra (8a) which relates that Rebbi was bothered when he gave his own bread to an Am ha'Aretz. The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah 251:11) says that this applies only in a year of Batzores (drought). Some say that the reasoning is that in years of drought, bread given to a Am ha'Aretz could have been given to a Talmid Chacham. According to this, we can say the same in our Gemara, that Rebbi Eliezer too is speaking only about a case that the Tzedakah is given only to someone with no Da'as and there is not enough for Talmidei Chachamim.
May you and your wife be blessed with the ability to keep on doing wonderful Chesed.
I hope this helps,
Aharon Steiner