I have fond memories of my grandmothers and my own mother getting ready to light Sabbath candles. Right before lighting candles, however, they would rush to get some coins for me and my brother or cousins to drop in a pushke, a tzedakah box. It was a blue and white box supplied by the Jewish National Fund, and the money was meant to help plant trees in Israel.
Obviously the good people at the JNF were aware of kids like me who would try to remove coins from the pushke, so it had little metal pieces hanging in from the inside that prevented one from trying to remove some coins when adults where not looking! I assume many people may have similar memories and many keep this practice till this day. Giving tzedakah right before lighting Shabbat candles is a way of adding one more mitzvah, of getting one more meritorious action in before the week is over.
I wonder, however, how many people know about the origin of the pushke. Would you believe that it is connected with a rabbi who lived almost 1,900 years ago, and with proto-zionism? There has been an uninterrupted Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. Even after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the subsequent exile of Jews to Rome, and throughout history Jews, have lived in Israel and even moved there from other places in the world. One of their greatest difficulties was that there were no ways to make a living in Israel, there was almost no economy then. Thus, they had to rely on help coming from Jewish communities outside of Israel.
In 1830, Jews from Galicia (Poland) who had come to the land of Israel to spend a lifetime pursuing their Torah studies on a full-time basis created the first charity of its kind: the Kolel Chibas Jerusalem Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charity. Its goal was to sponsor the upkeep of the institution itself and the living expenses of the students and their families. It was founded in the Orthodox quarter of Mea Shearim and it still exists. Through a network of emissaries, tzedakah boxes were distributed and collected periodically throughout Poland and later in other communities as well.
The charity was named after Rabbi Meir, the miracle maker. He was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna. According to a legend, his father was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero who had converted to Judaism. He was married to Bruriah, who was extremely wise as well as beautiful and is one of the few women cited in the Gemara. I assume that the decision of naming the charity after Rabbi Meir was a brilliant marketing device. According to the Talmud, prior to Rabbi Meier Baal Haness’ death, he observed the terrible situation that resulted from the hunger in Eretz Yisrael. He proclaimed that he would intercede in Heaven for whoever would give tzedakah for his soul, and the money should be distributed to the poor in the land of Israel. From this tradition derived the custom of giving charity to the tzedakah of Rabbi Meyer Baal Haness when one is in a situation of any need or distress.
The idea of a pushke, or tzedakah box, was so popular that the Jewish National Fund adopted it, and from there comes the blue and white box that is so familiar to us.
