אַרְבַע מִדֹות בְנֹותְנֵי צְדְקָה - הָרֹוצֶה שֶיִתֵן וְלֹא יִתְנּו אֲחֵרִים - עֵינֹו רָעָה בְשֶל אֲחֵרִים. יִתְנו אֲחֵרִים וְהּוא לֹא יִתֵן - עֵינֹו רָעָה בְשֶלו . יִתֵן וְיִתְנּו אֲחֵרִים - חָסִיד. לֹא יִתֵן וְלֹא יִתְנּו אֲחֵרִים - רָשָע
There are four types of charity givers: Those who want to give but don’t want others to give, he is mean to others. Others may give but he doesn’t want to – he is mean himself, he may give and so may others, this is a chassid. He who won't give and he doesn’t want others too either, he is a Rasha. [Avos 5]
There is a famous story about the Tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak from Berdichev, that when he was appointed as the chief rabbi of the town, he was asked to attend a meeting of the committee of the kehila. He knew that he would be wasting at least some of his time, so he asked to be called only when a new decree was about to be made. One day they called him and told him to come and discuss a new decree in the following words “Because of a rise in the number of paupers and beggars in the streets, we hereby decree that any new beggar or pauper who arrives in our town, instead of going the rounds of the batei Midrash and Shuls, will instead come to the community offices, who will give him an initial payment, this is to stop non-legitimate paupers from walking the streets of our town and taking charity in place of legitimate paupers.”
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak announced that he refused to come to the meeting, as the aforementioned degree had already been made in the "The Four Lands", and so it wasn’t new. The members of the local committee where certain that he was referring to the "The Committee of the Four Lands" the representative body of Eastern European Jewry. They rejoiced in the wisdom and knowledge of their rabbi, who was a master not just of Torah but also of local legislation. They looked in the protocols of the "committee of the Four Lands", but couldn’t find the decision. They returned to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, who told them: "I am not referring to the Committee of Four Lands we have now, but to four ancient ones: Sedom, Amora, Adama and Ztvuim. They made a degree forbidding charity, just as you have – making this an ideology is to become Reshaim."
