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UNPAID PLEDGES

I looked through my desk drawer and found a reminder of a pledge that I had made to a charitable organization two years ago. Chagrined, I sent in the money with a contrite note of apology as to how I overlooked the matter for so long. We are all aware of the ironic joke popularized by Jewish fundraisers about how thieves broke into the offices of major Jewish organization and stole $500,000 worth of pledges.

In my many years of raising funds for Torah organizations and other more general causes, I found myself much more adept at extracting pledges from donors than from actually collecting on those pledges. The vast majority of pledges are made in good faith and with proper intent. But circumstances change and many times the original good will does not somehow equal affixing one’s signature on the check itself.

King Solomon therefore warns us in Kohelet about making pledges easily and hastily. The Torah places a heavy premium on keeping one’s word – “everything that your mouth pledges shall you fulfill.” There is very little compromise on this matter found in halacha, especially if the pledge was made publicly and was itself used as a means to entice other donors to commit to the cause.


It is difficult to dun others for payments to charitable causes. Ultimately the matter rests on the conscience, good will and ability of the donor. I have had many experiences with people who pledged money and then when asked to redeem their pledge said they could not “because the stock market is down now” or because the “market is up and I don’t want to sell stock now to redeem my pledge in the middle of this stock rally.” So there is really no optimum time to ask for pledges to be redeemed. But they should always be asked to be redeemed, for the sake of the donor as much as for the sake of the charity involved for itself.

Not all pledges in life, both redeemed and unredeemed, deal with money. There are pledges of behavior, affection, good sense and probative actions that are also the legitimate subject of being redeemed in an honorable and timely fashion. The institution of marriage, so much under siege in our current society, is one of those areas of mutual pledges demanding constant fulfillment. The loyalty, best effort and industry of an employee to an employer and the reverse commitments of the employer to the employee are examples of continuing pledges and commitments.

Judaism views such pledges as being sacrosanct even if never actually committed to writing. Failure to observe social norms and kindnesses one to another is viewed in Jewish tradition as being equivalent to an unpaid pledge. And the pledge renews itself daily throughout our lives.

It also includes the pledge of loyalty between Jews, one to another. “All of Israel are pledged one to another,” is the phrase used by the rabbis of the Talmud to describe the comity of the Jewish people. The Torah recognizes the right of privacy and the freedom of personal choice. But this freedom is mitigated by the pledge of Jewish unity and responsibility that are incumbent pledges upon everyone born as a Jew. Those who speak out, for whatever reason, against the Jewish people and its one and only state are engaging in the folly of unpaid pledges.

There are also pledges between God, so to speak, and the people of Israel. This is the basis of the covenant of Sinai and is the story of the Jewish people throughout its long history. One has to hazard to say that there are yet unpaid pledges on both sides of this ledger. The full redemption and messianic era of Israel and the world generally has not as yet arrived after millennia of impatient waiting.

And the Jewish people, both as individuals and as a nation, are still far from fulfilling their pledges to Torah observance and Jewish life and values. In fact, the Jewish world is littered with unpaid pledges. And our history has shown that the Lord always demands eventual payment of pledges. Anti-Semitism and bigotry against us also appears to be some of the collection means of God, so to speak, and the penalty for unpaid pledges is a heavy one.

Perhaps if we reduce our amount of unpaid ledges we can expect that God will also in His good time and way, redeem His pledge, not only of Jewish survival but of full redemption as well.

Shabat shalom.

Berel Wein