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Strengthening prayers by giving proper charity
#3
"... combined with proper charity and acts of goodness and kindness."

Please elaborate. What is meant by "proper charity and acts of goodness and kindness"?
For example, when I dine out of the house, sometimes I will do so at a certain restaurant chain which has a private charity designed to care for the needs of sick children and their families. These restaurants have a box into which donations may be dropped, and I will sometimes donate my change after buying my food. Is this to be considered "proper charity"?

I realize that sometimes a charity eats up much or even most of the donations in "administration fees", and these fees vary from charity to charity. Since the restaurant in question is closely affiliated with the charity, I assume the administration fees are kept low so that more of my donation actually gets to the person in need as opposed to buying the suit for the pencil pusher counting the donations, if you take my meaning, but I don't KNOW this to be the case. Should I put more effort into finding out how much of the donations are eaten up in these sorts of fees?

Should we Noachides favor Jewish charities above Gentile ones (for example, looking for like vs. like, donate to Mogen David Adom over the "International Red Cross / Red Crescent"), or vice versa?

I subscribe to a service (through a certain yeshiva in Jerusalem which focuses on Ba'alei Teshuvah) whereby I can download lessons on Torah, both oral and written, Jewish ethics, Jewish history (ancient and recent), as well advice on improving my own moral character. Can I consider this "charity" since I am supporting the yeshiva, even though I am getting far more from them than they receive from me?

As for "acts of kindness," is there a difference between teaching children how to defend themselves against an attacker (I teach aikido, a martial art, and some of the students are minors), and holding a door for someone whose hands are full? And which iis to be preferred? Is the adage, "give a man a fish, teach a man to fish" applicable here, so that teaching is to be preferred over handouts?
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RE: Noahide prayers for peace - by Mattityahu ben Noach - 08-05-2011, 01:45 PM

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