Q. I’m not a very wealthy man, and in fact receive monthly tzeddakah cheques myself. However I do feel that it’s important to give some tzeddakah during davening, and so have a small change purse with coins. It happened that after davening, a shliach came to me, and I gave him two coins. Yet he continued to stand there with his hand out as though I hadn’t given him enough. What is the correct course of action in this case? Part of me wanted to take the two coins back from him and put it in a community tzeddakah box.

A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that in principle you can accept the coins if they are refused and returned, however, since we are dealing after all with only a few coins, it may be wise and an act of true chessed to even add a bit more; thus avoiding embarrassments and the words and feelings of anger and discord that may otherwise result.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a