I wrote in a recent post about how much tzdaka and chesed there is before the chag. Here is the other side of the coin....
Many people work for companies and organizations that pay them paltry salaries, barely enough to get by or less - even for highly challenging, full time work. Then come the Yomim Tovim, the expenses skyrocket but no commensurate bonus is given. This forces these people to have to receive tzdaka which is not a great feeling and the tzdaka they receive might still not be enough [it usually isn't].
How do the people paying the salaries at these institutions [such as yeshivos] expect their employees to make it? How do they expect them to afford new clothing for their wives and children?
Maybe there is a different answer but the only one I have been able to come up with is - they just don't care. It CAN'T be that they can't afford it because they are spending on other things so it is a matter of priorities. They also can go years and years without ever giving any help at all. It NEVER happened that the institution had a few dollars to help their hard working employees? Hard to believe.
One can argue - so quit and find work elsewhere. Easier said than done and the problem is that elsewhere the situation is likely to be the same.
So pay them starvation wages and then add nothing for Yom Tov expenses. If this weren't the case in so many places it would be slightly less disheartening but it is.
I write, crying out in protest and hope somebody out there will do something about it [I have written about this a lot in the past and in the meantime nothing has been done - but we don't like to despair:)]. Our goal is to preserve the dignity and well being of so many good, hard working, devoted people in Klal Yisrael.
