Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch begins Hilchot Pesach by saying: “We begin to inquire about the laws of Pesach thirty days before Pesach.” The Rama adds, “It is customary to buy wheat to distribute to the needy for Pesach.” The Torah states: “For six days you shall eat Matzah and the seventh day shall be a festival for Hashem, your G-d, and no work shall be performed etc. and you shall be glad before Hashem, your G-d; you, your son, your daughter, your servant and maidservant, and the Levi in your gates and the convert and the orphan and widow in your midst, in the place where Hashem, your G-d, shall choose to rest His presence there.” (Devarim, 16)
Rashi expounds this verse based on the Midrash that the Levi, convert, orphan, and widow are My (Hashem’s) four parallel to your four: your son, daughter, servant, and maidservant.
We see from here that one who makes certain to gladden the poor and downtrodden, meaning the Levi (who does not have money for the holiday of Pesach, for he did not have a portion of land in Israel), the convert, the orphan, and the widow, whom Hashem cares for and considers “His,” Hashem will reward him and gladden his four, namely his sons, daughters, servants, and maidservants. If one who does not gladden “Hashem’s four,” Hashem will not gladden “his four.”
It is thus a holy obligation upon every Jewish person to distribute charity to the poor before Pesach so that they may have sufficient funds to purchase Pesach necessities. Today, thank G-d, there are many trustworthy charity organizations to which one can donate one’s “flour for Pesach” money and they will in turn distribute these funds to the needy. There are some places where the treasurers of the synagogue collect funds from its members and they are responsible to pass these funds along to the poor. One must take care to donate these funds only to trustworthy individuals, as we have already explained in the Halachot of Tzedakah.
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