For the source text click/tap here: Ketubot 67
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We all know that it is a mitzva to give charity. According to Jewish law, the ideal would be to offer support to others anonymously, particularly when it might be embarrassing to know who the giver is.
We learn about Mar Ukva, who gave money in many ways. One of his recipients wanted to know who was leaving money by his door each day, and so he waited and watched.
That day, Mar Ukva's wife accompanied him and gave the tzadaka. As the recipient hear the door move, he jumped out to see who was there, but Mar Ukva and his wife ran into a furnace room where his legs were burned but hers were not. He realized that she was more worthy and became upset. She calmed him down by explaining that I usually give tzedaka from the home - food and useful items - and you give money, which is less immediately useful. That is why my tzedaka is greater. The rabbis teach that It is better to put oneself in a firey furnace than to whiten the face of a friend [to embarrass a friend]. Tamar taught us this when she stepped up to be burnt and she named her father-in-law without saying his actual name and embarrassing him.
We explore the hierarchy of giving Tzedakah based on the RAMBAM as we struggle between the levels of giving and not embarrassing the poor.
We encounter the curious whitewashing of Jewish gangsters in the late 20th century US, because of their propensity for charity.