Open your heart and give often.
Generosity is giving to others, whether prompted or not. Those who are generous will reach out unsolicited to those around them, lightening their load and brightening their days. Generosity imbalance, however, can appear in two ways. On one hand, being overly generous can bring one’s finances to ruin, while not being generous at all leads to miserliness and greed. A properly displayed trait of generosity knows when to give and how to give, and with the right spirit.
Meditation
Daily Questions
What were the seeds that started to erode your generosity today?
Think of how you used the resources around you today (money, natural, etc..). Did you see a need and respond generously? Why or why not?
Were you generous in your speech today? Did you take a moment to say something positive to someone to lift him/her up?
Is there a plan today or one day this week to distribute charity?
Did you look at someone today and judge their neediness or did you help them? Is this a different response than you usually give?
Does giving make you feel superior or haughty?
Is it difficult for you to give of your possessions to help others?
Featured Articles
Quotables
"Therefore, a man should take care to be generous according to his means, to be magnanimous where magnanimity is called for…weighing all in the scales of Torah." -- The Ways of the Tzaddikim, The Gate of Miserliness, page 323
"People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God's blessing on the one who is willing to sell." -- Mishlei 11:26
"Give, and it will be given to you; they will return to your lap a beautiful measure pressed, crammed full and overflowing. For with the measure that you use to measure, it will be measured to you."-- Mashiach Yeshua, Luke 6:38, DHE
"He who wants to give and also that others should give—he is a saintly man." -- Avot 5:16
"Whosoever possesses these three qualities belongs to the disciples of Abraham our father: a generous eye, a humble spirit, and a meek soul." -- Avot 5:22
"One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." -- Mishlei 11:24
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." -- Acts 20:35
"If one is measuring out wine, oil or the like, he must not be over-exact, but give a little more." -- Bava Basra 88b
"The ideal is to give correctly to a deserving poor person, with a pleasant expression." -- The Ways of the Tzaddikim, the Gate of Magnanimity, page 313
"For in the place where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -- Mashiach Yeshua, Matthew 6:21, DHE
In his vow, Jacob is acknowledging the true origin of all things. Everything we have is on loan to us. It is an illusion to think that whatever prosperity we attain is solely because of our own efforts.