Matthew 6:2: “Therefore when thou doest [thine] alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”
I am an ordained Baptist minister and I fear I may get defrocked after this little study. It is studies like these that explain why I use the pseudonym of Chaim Bentorah and not my real name. If it comes back to me I can just say, “Yeah, I heard about that Chaim Bentorah fellow/gal, better watch out for him/her.”
Whenever I read this passage I get a picture in my mind of a righteous Pharisee who has a man with a rams horn or shofar following him around. Whenever he drops a coin into the cup of a beggar the guy with the shofar gives the horn a blast and announces, “Hey, everybody, notice what old Reuben did here, he just dropped a whole shekel in the cup, let’s hear it for the righteous man.”
I have really found no historical evidence of a shofar or any trumpet sounding when someone gave alms. Most commentators generally agree that this was just a figurative expression. The word alms in the Aramaic is the word zedhqatha which means a right, or righteous act, the proper thing to do. Many people were forced into begging because of unjust rulers who levied heavy taxes and tributes reducing some people to a level of poverty. They were forced to beg to survive, yet these were hardworking people, the ones who found it extremely embarrassing to beg for a handout. That is why Jesus used an old Aramaic expression when he said do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, in other words do not let anyone know that you are giving alms so as not to embarrass the person who is receiving the support. The Talmud teaches that to humiliate a person in public is as bad as committing murder. Jesus was only enforcing this belief.
I remember in the church I grew up we had what was called a benevolent fund. Once a month we collected an offering or on occasion someone who drop an envelope with some money in it designating that his money be used for the benevolent fund. A special committee of three people was given charge over this fund. If there was a need that came to the attention of the pastor he would pass it on to the benevolent fund committee and they would discreetly use the fund to meet that need. No one else in the church was ever made aware of how this money was spent, who the beneficiary was or even how much was in the fund. This was a zedhqatha or alms, the doing of a righteous act.
I was reading in rabbinic literature and I ran across an interesting phrase, tamara qarna the exact words used in the Aramaic Bible for sound the trumpet. The rabbinic textual experts, however, render this as do not pass the trumpet. Qarna means the horn of an animal which would fit the description of a shofar. In the first century synagogues the poor box or the alms box was in the shape of a shofar and in many cases was a real shofar. It would be in a discreet area of the synagogue where one could drop coins in for the poor. This was equivalent to the benevolent fund of a church.
What was happening was that the men in the synagogue started passing around the shofar and taking note of who gave what and how much. It was sort of like an offering plate and everyone was compelled to give lest they appear to be impious. I know that feeling, I have been guilty of dropping an empty envelope into the offering plate so the usher would not think me a Christian cheapskate (not at my present home church of course). Sometimes the pious men in the synagogue would take the shofar out into the streets and call upon people to drop some coins in the trumpet. Not too unlike Santa Claus standing next to the red bucket outside Walgreens at Christmas time ringing his bell in your face to attract everyone’s attention as if to say, “Well, let’s see if this Chaim Bentorah fellow is really a Scrooge.” This may be what Jesus is addressing, not blowing a trumpet but passing a trumpet or offering plate.
Do your ever notice that they do not pass an offering plate in a Jewish synagogue? Jews do not tithe. In fact, I would like to quote one rabbi who said: “If any member of my synagogue paid tithe in the Scriptural manner, he would be disobeying the law of God – he would be sinning against God.” Quite amazing as most of our teachings about tithing comes from the Old Testament. So how can the Jews flagrantly disobey such a clear cut law?
The rabbi went on to explain that the Torah demands that the tithe be paid to Levite Priests and therefore it would be wrong to pay it to anyone else. Since there is no Levitical order of Priest ministering at a Temple in Jerusalem, this makes it illegal at this period of time to pay any tithe according to the Torah. And no, even though this rabbi was the chief rabbi he was not a Levite and was not going to play that game that he was in the role of a Levitical priest, because he was not. Even Jesus could not have received a tithe, He was from the tribe of Judah. Jews simply raise the money to pay the light bill and all the other activities of the synagogue through a patron system. The members pay yearly dues which is sometimes more than ten percent of their income. This system is not in violation of Scripture as they are paying to a synagogue and not a Levite. Also, I have noticed in some synagogues that there is a little envelop pasted to the back cover of a prayer book where you can discreetly leave a little gift or a little zedhqatha.
To be fair, I am not a flag waving radical trying to bring down the church. The use of the offering plate is being debated this day among many top church leaders. Passing an offering plate is really a twentieth century innovation. Many and various methods have been used to try and fund the church institution but the passing of the plate in the early twentieth century was the most successful and it just sort of caught on. However, there are many church leaders who are aware of the inherent social pressure with passing an offering plate, not to mention that it has become a form of worship for many people, so it is a very difficult matter and one that does concern the church. Alternatives are being tried and as we move to a cashless society alternatives will most likely have to be enforced.
So please don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying it is wrong to pass an offering plate to collect tithes, I am just saying it is not Biblical, that’s all.
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