📋 Shiur Overview
Argument Flow Summary: The Torah of the Campaign – Rambam on Funding Torah Scholars
Opening Frame: The Campaign Must Be Rooted in Torah
Everything must be connected to Torah — “our minhag is lehachlis es halechi.” Therefore, the fundraising campaign being run this week must be examined through multiple lenses of Torah: critical Torah, Chassidishe Torah, Kabbalah Torah, and more. This video is the first in a planned short series exploring the “sodos” (deep foundations) of the campaign from every Torah perspective.
—
The Central Challenge: The Rambam’s Apparent Prohibition
A well-known objection arises immediately: The Rambam (Maimonides) explicitly argued that Torah scholars (chachamim) should work for a living and should not rely on the community for financial support. Many people familiar with the speaker’s deep engagement with the Rambam raise this as a contradiction: *”How can you call yourself a student of the Rambam and then run a fundraising campaign for your Bais Medrash?”*
—
The Core Thesis: “Read the Whole Rambam”
Both “joke answers” and standard apologetics are rejected. The core claim is that most people have not read the Rambam’s full discussion to the end. The relevant source is the Rambam’s *Peirush HaMishnayos* on Pirkei Avos, Chapter 4, Mishna 6 (“lo sa’aseh haTorah le’hisgadel bahem” — do not use the Torah as a tool for self-aggrandizement). One must read through to the conclusion to find the Rambam’s own positive answer.
—
Acknowledging the Rambam’s Critique as Genuinely Serious
The Rambam’s harsh criticism is not dismissed. His “long rant” against scholars relying on communal support — calling it destructive to religion — is very serious and should be taken seriously. This is not a straw man; the force of the objection is genuinely accepted.
—
The Rambam’s Own Framework: Halacha as the Organizing Principle
Key Methodological Point
The Rambam was operating within the framework of halacha (Torah law, including Torah sheba’al peh / Oral Torah). Even his prohibition against taking money for learning was not a freestanding ethical opinion — it was presented as law, derived from the Mishna. Therefore, the Rambam’s *answer* to what scholars *may* do is also framed as law.
The Rambam’s View of Halacha and Virtue
Halacha provides the guidelines between extremes of every virtue (too much, too little). Almost every mishna in Pirkei Avos has a counter-mishna presenting the opposite extreme. The prohibition on taking communal money is one extreme; the Rambam then provides the other side — what *is* permitted.
—
The Rambam’s Positive Answer: Two Permitted Financial Privileges for Scholars
After the critique, the Rambam asks: *”What did the Torah permit for Talmidei Chachamim?”* He gives two specific halachic provisions:
1. The Scholar as Investor
The talmid chacham provides capital; others do business with that capital and return the profits to the scholar. The Gemara calls this *”matil mela’ei lekis shel Talmidei Chachamim”* — essentially, the scholar functions as an investor who contributes money while others do the labor, and the scholar receives returns. The scholar works less (or not at all) compared to a regular investor.
2. Marketplace Precedence
If a talmid chacham has merchandise to sell, the community gives him first position in the marketplace — the best advertising spot, the highest placement — so he can sell before others.
—
The Rambam’s Justification: Analogy to Kohanim and to Friendship
Analogy to Kohanim
These two privileges are compared to the *terumos u’ma’asros* (tithes) that God gave to the Kohanim. Just as Kohanim who serve the community are entitled by law to receive tithes, so too scholars who serve the community are entitled to these specific financial accommodations — no more, no less. The Rambam sets precise boundaries: exceeding these privileges is wrong; falling short of them is also wrong.
[Minor Digression: Prophetic Criticism of Kohanim]
Some prophets (Nevi’im) criticized Kohanim who took tithes without serving the community. However, if one *does* serve, the entitlement is legitimate law.
The “Friendship” Rationale
The Rambam explains why these privileges are not exploitative: this is simply how business friends treat each other. In the world of commerce, especially at higher levels of wealth, people routinely give better terms, easier deals, and preferential treatment to friends. The Torah is saying: treat the talmid chacham as your best friend in business — take his investments, give him better terms, give him precedence. This is normal commercial friendship, not charity or exploitation.
—
Synthesis: The Rambam’s *Actual* Plan for Sustaining Scholars
The Rambam did not leave scholars without a solution. The standard apologetic (“What can we do? We need money to learn!”) misses the point entirely. The Rambam provided a concrete economic model: scholars should be embedded in the business world as investors and preferred merchants, sustained through the natural dynamics of commercial friendship and respect — which simultaneously preserves and enhances the prestige of Torah rather than degrading it.
The Prestige Argument
In most societies, investors and capitalists occupy a higher social position than laborers. The talmid chacham, who provides intellectual and spiritual guidance, should analogously be positioned as someone who provides financial guidance and capital — a hub of the community’s economic life, not a dependent.
—
[Side Digression: The Rebbe as Community Coordinator]
A discussion from the previous year addressed the function of a rebbe/teacher/talmid chacham as a center of the community — including serving as a matchmaker (*shadchan*) or coordinator connecting people for business (employers to employees, deal-makers to partners, etc.). This coordination role should not be expected for free. Just as you compensate a business friend who introduces you to a partner, you should compensate the talmid chacham for the same service.
—
Application to the Current Campaign: A Kal Vachomer (A Fortiori Argument)
The bridge from the Rambam’s theory to the practical campaign proceeds as follows:
1. Observation: Most people who give to online campaigns do so out of business friendship — “you support my campaign, I support yours.” This is a normal commercial-social dynamic.
2. Kal vachomer (a fortiori reasoning): If people give money to a business partner’s online campaign as an expression of friendship and mutual support, then all the more so they should give to a talmid chacham / Torah institution running a campaign — since the Torah itself mandates this kind of commercial friendship with scholars.
3. The campaign is therefore justified even within the Rambam’s framework, because it functions as an expression of the very business-friendship dynamic the Rambam endorsed.
—
The Ultimate Vision: From Campaign to Genuine Economic Partnership
The argument concludes with a forward-looking call:
– Immediate call to action: Business-minded friends are invited to invest capital, starting small and growing — the Rambam’s model of the scholar-as-investor made practical.
– Long-term vision: The purpose of the campaign is not merely to collect donations but to bring people together so that eventually the community can “do business together” and “make money in a legitimate way.” The goal is not perpetual asking for money, but building actual productivity together — the scholar and community enmeshed in the investment and business world, creating real economic value in exchange for real work.
– Final principle: The correct and dignified way is not free charity, but mutual economic participation — the talmid chacham integrated into the productive economy as the Rambam envisioned.
—
Summary of the Core Argument Flow
1. Problem: The Rambam seems to prohibit fundraising for Torah scholars.
2. Method: Read the *entire* Rambam — he works within halacha, which balances extremes.
3. The Rambam’s own answer: Two specific legal privileges — scholar as investor, and marketplace precedence.
4. Justification: These mirror Kohanim’s tithes and are analogous to normal business friendship — not charity.
5. Application: The current campaign fits this model as an expression of business friendship (kal vachomer).
6. Vision: Move from campaigns toward genuine economic partnership between scholars and community, preserving Torah’s prestige through productive integration rather than dependence.
📝 Full Transcript
The Torah of the Campaign: Rambam on Supporting Torah Scholars Through Business Partnership
Introduction: Grounding the Campaign in Torah
So Raboizeh [Rabbosai: my teachers/gentlemen], since we’re doing this campaign this week, but our minhag [custom/practice] is, like I discussed in my video on Erev Shabbos [the eve of the Sabbath], everything we do has to do with Torah. So we have to discuss some of the Torah of the campaign, some of the critical Torah, some of the Chassidish [Hasidic] Torah, some of the Kabbalah [Jewish mysticism] Torah, all of them.
B’ezras Hashem [with God’s help] there will be a few short videos to explain the sodos [secrets/deep foundations] of the campaign from every aspect of Torah. So the first most important thing is the Rambam [Maimonides].
The Challenge: The Rambam’s Apparent Prohibition on Fundraising
Everyone else will learn a lot of Rambam, and many Yidden [Jews] that know we learn a lot of Rambam, and then we see we make a campaign, they say: “Don’t you know that Rambam was against raising money for Torah? Rambam said that the chachamim [Torah scholars] should work and they shouldn’t be a hena [burden], they shouldn’t rely on the tzibur [community] to support them, they should work themselves.”
The Real Answer: Read the Complete Rambam
So here’s the actual answer. There’s a lot of joke answers that we can give and a lot of apologetics that we can do, but here’s the actual critical answer:
The actual answer is that you should read the whole Rambam. It talks about the length in Pirkei Avos [Ethics of the Fathers], Perek Dalet [Chapter 4], Peirush HaMishnayos [Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna], Perek Dalet on the Mishnah of “Lo sa’aseh atar leis gadol bahem” [Do not make the Torah a crown to aggrandize yourself], Perek Dalet Mishnah Vav [Chapter 4, Mishna 6] on the Rambam of Mishnayos. And you have to go until the end.
Many people have not read until the end, and then they say, “Well, how could you consider yourself a student of the Rambam if you raise money for your Beis HaMedrash [house of Torah study]?” So you have to read all the way until the end, and I’ll see the actual answer that Rambam gave to this.
The Rambam’s Critique and His Halachic Framework
So Rambam, after giving his long rant, long speech, against how horrible it is that people rely on the community to support them for their learning, and how destructive this is for religion—all these things are very serious criticism that should be taken very seriously.
Working Within the Framework of Halacha
He says, but, the Amnam [however], what is the thing that the Torah has permitted for Talmidei Chachamim [Torah scholars]? You see, Rambam is working within the framework of halacha [Jewish law].
Rambam very much believes that halacha, mitzvos [commandments], the way, even including Torah sheba’al peh [the Oral Torah], of course, including the way, which he calls it “derech” [the path], the way that organizes all the ethical dilemmas, all the ethical questions of life—that’s his answer always.
So Rambam was working within this framework. Even when he said that you’re not allowed to take money for teaching, for learning, he didn’t just say it as a general ethical statement. He claimed that it’s the law, it’s the Torah sheba’al peh, the Mishnah that says that you’re not allowed to do this.
And so then, he also, in his answer to what a Talmid Chacham [Torah scholar] can do, what kind of privileges, what kind of monetary privileges do belong to Talmidei Chachamim, he answers in the same way with the halacha.
The Rambam’s Method: Balancing Extremes Through Halacha
And this is the Rambam’s way of reading the mitzvos, the halacha, as giving you the framework, giving you the guidelines between every virtue, right? Every virtue we know has an extreme good, an extreme bad, and too much and too little. And the Rambam sees the halacha as always worrying about these two sides.
Almost every Mishnah in Pirkei Avos, there’s an opposite Mishnah that gives you the other extreme. And here also, there’s the other extreme.
The Rambam’s Positive Answer: Two Permitted Privileges
And he says like this: What is the thing that the Torah did give for Talmidei Chachamim?
First Privilege: The Scholar as Investor
That people should—that they should give money to people—sorry, he says the Torah gave money to people, that that person, the Talmid Chacham, should give money to people, that person should do business, should do business with his money according to him. And he, they will give the profit to the Talmid Chacham.
He says, which means basically that the Talmidei Chachamim will be investors. So the Rambam’s ideal Talmid Chacham is an investor who gives the money, provides the money, and people work for him sort of for free. And the Rambam will explain.
Second Privilege: Marketplace Precedence
And another thing is that if the Talmid Chacham has some material, some merchandise that he wants to sell, they give him the first. So he’s like the first ad. If you have an advertisement agency, you have to give the Talmidei Chachamim that have businesses the first, the highest ad, or if you have a marketplace, give them the higher level so they should sell before everyone else.
These Are Torah Laws
And the Rambam says these are the laws that God has given for Talmidei Chachamim—these two things.
The Rambam’s Justification: Analogy to Kohanim and Business Friendship
And he explains, and why is this okay? So he says God gave these Talmidei Chachamim just like he gave for the Kohanim [priests] terumos and ma’asros [tithes and offerings].
The Kohanim Analogy
The Rambam doesn’t complain about the Kohanim. Of course the Nevi’im [prophets], some of them already complained about the Kohanim taking terumos and not working for the community. But if you do work for the community, then it’s the law that you deserve to get terumos and ma’asros, and that is the law.
So this law is exactly saying this is how much people should give to support the Talmidei Chachamim, and more than that would be incorrect, less than that would also be incorrect.
In the same way, these two laws of Talmidei Chachamim doing business with people, being the investors which don’t have to work, or have to work even less than is expected from regular investors, and other people giving them the profits, or Talmidei Chachamim having some kind of precedence in the marketplace, that they can sell their material first before other people—this is the law, the Torah law that they are allowed to have.
The Business Friendship Rationale
And the Rambam also explains, it doesn’t only say this is a law. He also explains why is this not considered bad, why is this not considered them using the community for their own benefit.
He says, because this is a normal thing—merchants, business people do this one to another also if they love each other. So everyone that knows great people that do big business, they know that friendship is a very important thing. A lot of business is done on the basis of “I like you and I’m your friend, and therefore I will give you better terms, I will work for you easier.”
When people have larger amounts of money, very small amounts of money it’s not really relevant, but in large amounts of money you’re nicer to your friends because of that. And the Torah is saying Talmidei Chachamim should be your friends, and you should act to them as if they, in the way that you act to your best friends.
So you take their investments, you give them better terms, you work for them in that way, you give them precedence, you give them the highest position in your annual marketplace and things like that. That is the Torah law, and that is how the Rambam expects Talmidei Chachamim to actually support themselves.
Additional Exemptions
And he goes on talking about other things that Talmidei Chachamim are exempt from, like certain taxes. And he says that actually also the law, this law is correct to this day, that they do not have to pay certain taxes and so on.
The Rambam’s Complete Vision: Not Apologetics, But a Real Economic Model
So therefore, I want to say that I think that the Rambam very clearly—so everyone does the apologetic on the Rambam, says, “Well, what can we do? How are we going to learn if we don’t have money?”
The Rambam actually gave you the answer. This is how you could learn without destroying the prestige of Torah, and the opposite, with giving the Torah more prestige, by giving the Talmid Chacham that does little business the honor and the respect and the friendly accommodations that you give to your best friend who does business with you.
A Call to Business Partners
And therefore, I will here—this is also a call to any of my friends who are great business people, very ready to do this deal, put in a little bit of capital and slowly we’ll grow more. And I think that this is the real ultimate plan to how to support this Beis Medrash.
The Prestige Argument
And it’s also, as you understand, this also actually gives us prestige, because everyone knows in most societies, the investors, we could call the capitalists—it’s not exactly a nice word for everyone, but the people that their money runs the marketplace are on a higher level than the people who actually do the work.
And the Talmidei Chachamim, just like they’re providing the intellectual food, intellectual stimulation for the community and guidance and so on, they also should be in the same way providing the financial guidance, being like the people that people do business with them or maybe even use them for advice.
The Rebbe as Community Coordinator
I think one I’ve discussed last year, I think, one of the functions of a Rebbe [teacher/spiritual leader], of a teacher, of a Talmid Chacham, to be a center of the community, which also means that he will be the shadchan [matchmaker], or something like the coordinator between different people who need different business, employers, employees, business deals, and so on.
And it’s not to be expected that he does this for free. People think, “Oh, if you’re a Rebbe, then you should introduce me to my business partner for free.” No, it should be understood that just like you respect your friend who is in business, who knows people, and you will compensate him, you will do better deals with him because he’s your friend, because he introduced you to people, you need to do the same for the Talmid Chacham.
Application to the Current Campaign
So this is the actual plan. And we might be able to justify also our campaign in the same way, because—but this is already a kal vachomer [a fortiori argument, an argument from the lenient to the stringent]—because everyone understands that most people that give money to these kind of online campaigns, it’s really a business friendship, right?
If you do business with me, so I give you some money for your campaign, and I give you money for your campaign. So just like you can—so it’s a kal vachomer. If someone gives money to their business partner because they’re running an online campaign, so he wants to help him, so this is like one way of showing his love and friendship, that you could give the money to the Talmid Chacham himself, to the Torah itself who is running a campaign, and to show your friendship.
The Ultimate Vision: From Campaign to Economic Partnership
And just like in business, I think the purpose of all this campaign is to get people together so eventually we should be able to do business together, and we should be able to make money in a legitimate way, not only in like asking for money—it’s not for free for the work that we do, but in exchange for the work we do.
The correct way is to be enmeshed, to be part of the investment kind of world and the business world, and to create, to create actual productivity together.
Thank you.