There is always a debate, and a concern among people donating money to organizations, as to what is a legitimate percentage for the collector/meshulach/shnorrer to take as compensation from the monies he raised on their behalf. People want to know that the money they are donating is going to the organization, but it costs money to hire a fundraiser and they deserve a salary for their work and efforts. They surely deserve to earn a salary or commission - the question is simply how much is reasonable.

Rav Doni Schwartz of Machon Hatorah vHaaretz has written a detailed psak on the matter in which he says paying to the collector anything beyond 50% is unreasonable and is considered theft. He says that organizations should give a lot less than 50% but he leaves it open saying that it also depends on the amount of work the collector has to put into the job.

Rav Schwartz brings from Rav Shternbuch that a colelctor is allowed to take a portion of the money because otherwise nobody would be willing to fundraise for the organizations, so like the halacha by poor people that nobody will look out for them if they did not earn some of the money, that applies to these organizations as well.

Rav Schwartz also brings from Rav Zilbershtein that it is still considered tzedaka for the donors and giving some of the money to the fundraiser is nto considered going against the wishes of the donor who wants his money to go to tzedaka. Rav Zilbershtein explains that the fundraiser works on their behalf and deserves to get paid and this is like any other expense or salary the yeshiva has to pay.

So, a yeshiva could designate a portion of the money raised for the collector and it is not considered theft from the poor for whom the money was designated. The recipients are "moichel" the reasonable percentage so that someone will be willing to do the work to raise a lot more money for them than he otherwise would.

However, Rav Schwartz makes the point that giving anything beyond 50% is already too much and nobody donating money agrees to the majority of his money going to pay for the collector. So anything beyond that is unreasonable and would be considered theft. The exact amount he receives should be base don a combination of factors such as how much work and effort he must put in, the value of the "brand" for which he is collecting, with an upward limit of 50%.

I wonder who is considered stealing in such a case where the fundraiser takes more than 50%. A case could be made that he isn't stealing anything as he is working for an organization and whatever they negotiated is fair for him to take. Maybe the yeshiva or organization agreeing to use the collected money to pay more than 50% to the fundraiser is the one stealing, but the money is there to be used for their expenses, and this is an expense. It seems the donor is being deceived and the yeshiva/poor people are being stolen from, but I am not sure who guilty of the theft. Maybe the two together - the collector and the yeshiva administrator.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project, where they sift through the dirt and rubble removed from Temple Mount by the Arabs from their construction projects, has posted on its website the discovery of a number of shells of the Murex Trunculus snail.

Being that such snails are generally found along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and not inland, they suspect there might have been a dye producing "factory" on site or very nearby for the purpose of producing the argaman (purplish hue) and tekhelet (sky blue hue) dyes for the various needs of the Temple, as these two color dyes are both produced from the Murex snail.

It is not a great proof that the murex is the true source of the tekhelet, as perhaps it was only used for the argaman and not the tekhelet, but this discovery can definitely be added to the long list compiled by the Ptil Tekhelet organization as strong indicators of being the true source.

The Ministry of Defense is not transferring the money for the treatment of the Syrian refugees, despite its commitment to do so.  This is increasing the deficit if the hospitals in the north... if payment will not be arranged, retroactive as well, I will prohibit hospitals from accepting new refugee patients. I'll go crazy. Don't be a bleeding heart on my back.

  -- Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman, commenting on the 300 million nis costs involved until now in treating wounded Syrian refugees.

There is a humanitarian crisis in Syria, and whatever help can be offered should be offered, but someone has to pay for it. While sick/injured Syrians get free and immediate health care in Israel, many Israelis are destitute and sick and for them there is no money available from the government. It is important to help the Syrian victims, but if that much money is being spent on them then there should be more money available to help needy Israelis..

this is a picture of the "mitzva tanse" of the rebbe of Kretchnif Siget with a kalla - the kalla of his son. This is form the last night of sheva brachos - in Kretchnif SIget their custom is that the rebbe does his mitzva tanse at both the wedding and at the last night of sheva brachos. Due to a shortage of space available in the beis medrash, the mitzva tanse was performed long distance via an extra long gartel or rope, with the kalla in the ezras nashim.
source: Behadrei

I've never seen that before...

According to a report on Kikar, the people of the Arab village of Husan, along with some people from the neighboring Jewish town of  Beitar, are upset that the army has decided to try to put an end to the recent increase in stone throwing incidents from Husan on cars passing on the road below the village (375). To that end the IDF has now prohibited the entry of Jews into Husan, and IDF tractors blocked the egress from Husan to the road forcing locals to use an alternate bypass road.

The Husan people are upset that they are now losing all the Jewish business [mostly] from Beitar, and say it will have the opposite effect from the desired effect. They say it is kids doing the stone throwing, urged by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and they have no control over this no matter how much the IDF punishes them. The say the IDF knows who is responsible and can punish those families alone and not everyone collectively, but they prefer to have the village leaders do the dirty work, though it will be ineffective.

The Beitar people are upset that now they will have to pay more for construction materials and for getting cars repaired because they cannot go to Husan to take advantage of the cheaper prices.

1. they basically support and confirm the concept of economic peace that many, including Bibi, have spoken about. Meaning, as long as they are making a decent living, they won't want to get involved in all that fighting that often hurts them economically. The people of Husan are saying exactly that. It i sjust kids. We just want to make a living. Hurting our bottom line by banning the Jews will just radicalize more people.

2. weird how despite the regular terror inflicted on the Jews, both local and others just passing through, [some of] the people of Beitar are still upset at the thought of having to go somewhere else and pay more money to fix their cars and buy goods. They'd prefer to support the people throwing stones on them then to pay extra elsewhere.

3. they all claim to know better than the IDF what security measures will and will not work.

4. Maybe Israel should just build a wall around Husan.

According to a report on INN, a group of left-wingers' are planning on joining the Likud in order to influence the direction of the party to lean more leftward, despite not having any intention of actually voting for the party in future general elections.

a. they will never get enough people to join the Likud to do anything significant.
b. even if they tried, the Likud could technically reject their membership, citing the clear lack of identification with, and actual opposition to, Likud policy. Labor just did that when Amir Chetzroni tried to join their party. Likud did it when Hatzel joined. It happens all the time, and would surely happen if the Likud leadership caught wind of an attempt at a hostile takeover.
c. Moshe Feiglin tried this from the other side, going more right-wing. After 15 years of trying, see where it got him and how he changed the Likud. He gave up.
d. it should be fun to watch

this is a very interesting report... especially the discussion after the report....

is this really true?

I hope it goes even half as well as Zell thinks it will...