The halukka, also spelled haluka, halukkah or chalukah (, meaning distribution), was an organized collection and distribution of charity funds intended for Jewish residents of the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael or the Holy Land).
General method of operation
Sympathizing Jews in a diaspora city or district would form a standing committee, overseen by a gabbai, to manage collections and send funds semiannually to the Halukkah managers in Jerusalem. The distribution policy typically divided funds into three equal parts: one-third for yeshiva scholars, one-third for poor widows, orphans, and temporary relief for helpless men, and the final third to cover Jewish community expenses. These distributions usually occurred semi-annually before the Passover and New-Year festivals.
The Jerusalem management deployed representatives known as meshulachim (Heb. ; sing. "meshulach", Heb. ) on fundraising missions throughout regions such as the Levant, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, Russia, Poland, and America.
One universal and passive method of fundraising was the introduction of the household and synagogue 'charity-box,' an innovation of late seventeenth century meshulachim, frequently labeled so that the charity be given in memory of Rabbi Meir Ba'al ha-Nes.
Origin The custom of collecting funds in the Diaspora for Jewish residents in the Land of Israel may date back to the earliest Rabbinical period, when the Jewish academies in Eretz Israel were supported in large part by voluntary contributions from congregations elsewhere.
The term "messenger of Zion" ("sheliah Tziyyon", Heb. ) was applied during the Amoraic era (fourth century CE) to Rabbi Hama ben Ada, who traveled between Babylon and Eretz Israel, delivering decisions and messages,Beitzah 25b and probably soliciting relief.
There exists a scholarly historical dispute whether Rabbi Yechiel of Paris transferred his yeshiva from Paris to Acre around 1257Jafi education or not. According to the opinion that he did emigrate, along with 300 disciples, they soon found themselves without means of support, and that one Rabbi was then sent to solicit relief in the Ottoman lands. This would make R' Yaakov the first documented meshulach.
During the famine of 1441, the Jewish community of Jerusalem sent a meshulach, whose name is curiously recorded as Esrim veArba'ah (a surname, and not, as Heinrich Graetz supposes, a title of honor indicating his knowledge of the 24 books of the Bible) to European countries. The meshulach was directed to go first to a Jewish central committee located in Constantinople in order to obtain necessary credentials. However, Constantinople and Jerusalem were at the time under the jurisdiction of the warring states of Turkey and the Egyptian Mamelukes, so the committee chairman, Moses Capsali, was prohibited under Turkish law from allowing money to be imported to Jerusalem.
Ruling of Rabbi Joseph Caro Rabbi Joseph Caro of Safed (d. 1575), author of the authoritative code of Jewish Law, the Shulkhan Arukh, ruled that residents of Jerusalem and of the Holy Land have a superior claim upon Jewish charity."Bet Yosef" to Ṭur Yoreh De'ah. 251, 3 The prior, longstanding, and still legitimate opposing view is that residents of one's own city or adopted country have the superior claim.Sifre, Deuteronomy 116 [ed. Friedmann, p. 98] Both views are based on , which refers to supporting the poor person "within any of your gates, in your land". Caro's ruling was based on the presumption that the only land which God gave the Jewish people was the Holy Land.
Meshulachim in the 17th century Takkanah of 1625 To provide for a permanent increase of the haluḳḳah, the Jewish communities of Galilee, early in the seventeenth century, adopted a rabbinic ordinance ("takkanah") invalidating any will not made in the presence of the ַParnas; this had the effect of reminding testators of their duty toward the community of Jerusalem.Lunez, "Jerusalem." ii. 87. Another takkanah was afterward issued which practically amounted to a confiscation, for the benefit of the halukkah, of the chattels, money, and accounts of a deceased Jew who left no resident heirs. There were many evasions, and in several instances the well-to-do, before taking up their residence in the Holy Land, stipulated a certain sum which was to be paid to the community upon their death in place of the fulfilment of the decree. This so-called "inheritance tax" was strenuously opposed by the richer classes, and it was spasmodically abolished and reenacted. The income from this tax, however, never amounted to one-third of the halukkah, and to supply the deficiency there was no alternative but to resort to the meshulachim, who as a result became so numerous, and such frequent visitors in the European congregations, that they were regarded as wandering tramps, a nuisance and a reproach.
Moses Hagiz, a typical meshulach, deplores the low estimate of the meshulach entertained by the general public, and in reply to a Spanish contributor, (1) shows why the Holy Land is religiously superior to other countries, (2) urges the duty of settling there even prior to the fulfillment of the prophecies, (3) speaks of the calamities and tribulations of the Jews in Jerusalem, and (4) explains why the funds contributed in all parts of the world are insufficient. Referring to the meshulachim, he says: "They are sent abroad to acquaint our people in foreign countries of Jewish conditions in the Holy Land, and to enlist sympathy and support for the standard-bearers of the Tabernacle of God, who keep alive Jewish hopes and inspirations in the Land of Israel." He points out that the fact that "Christians will remit thousands of pounds annually for the maintenance of a Christian settlement is a challenge to the Jews who neglect to provide for the beloved sons of Zion."Moses Hagiz, "Sefat Emet" (Amsterdam, 1697)
Hagiz estimated the appropriation of the halukkah for 1,500 souls in Southern Syria, including 1,000 in Jerusalem, to be 10,000 lire. Toward this sum there was an income from communal taxes of 2,000 lire; from legacies 2,000 lire; collected by meshulachim 2,000 lire; leaving a deficiency of 4,000 lire; Jewish indebtedness already amounted to sixty thousand "shekalim" (florins?). Hagiz was aware of the fact that the meshulachim were not liked, that they were abused no less than were the sages in Jerusalem, who were suspected and accused of "leading a luxurious life and spending the funds of the halukkah in drinking coffee and smoking tobacco." Nevertheless, he was ready to state under oath that the halukkah barely supplied one-third of their actual necessaries of life. The main sources of the halukkah at that time in Europe were London, Amsterdam, Venice, and Leghorn.
Borrowing from Gentiles To meet the drain on the halukkah, the Jerusalem Jewish community borrowed from Gentiles at an enormous rate of interest, up to 45% per annum, mortgaging their communal property; and when they failed to meet the obligations at maturity, the leaders of the congregation were imprisoned and held for ransom. Rabbi David Melammed, a meshulach of Hebron, rendered a decision to the effect that inasmuch as the representative Jews of Hebron were held under bail for taxes and other indebtedness of the community, they came under the category of "captives held for ransom," whose claims, therefore, took precedence over all other charitable matters having a special fund for disposal, and were not a perversion of charity.his responsa, in Ezekiel Silva's "Mayim Hayyim," Amsterdam, 1718)
===The meshulach'''s employment contract and compensation===
The Jerusalem management of the halukkah would typically contractually obligate itself to provide for the meshulach's family during his absence, to advance his initial travelling expenses, and to allow him to keep a 45% commission on all contributions coming directly from him or that were due to his influence, and a 10% commission on all income from his territory during the ten years following his return.
A meshulach would contractually obligate himself to devote his attention and best endeavors: to arousing people to charity by offering public lectures; to urging local gabbaim to increase their remittances, and; to opening up new sources of income. The term of this contract would generally be from three to ten years, but could be longer. In a mission to an important city, a meshulach might sometimes accept a rabbinate or the position of a "maggid"-preacher. Occasionally, a meshulach would undertake the promotion of a business enterprise. He would also serve as a news-trafficker.
Over time, the position would develop a level of disrepute due to those among the meshulachim who thought chiefly of personal gain, and cared little for the cause they represented. Pseudo-meshulachim, who represented no community, but travelled on their own behalf, also contributed largely to bring discredit upon the office and duty they had fraudulently assumed.
Ashkenazi participation
During the middle of the eighteenth century, Ashkenazi Hasidim began arriving in the Holy Land in significant numbers, and began to receive a share of the halukkah. The share, however, they asserted, was not in proportion to their numbers. They complained to the Ashkenazi gabbaim of Europe, and eventually created their own hallukah organization, with the aid of the Council of the Four Lands, headquartered in Lublin, Poland. Later, Rabbi Abraham Gershon Kutawer, leader of the Hasidim in Hebron, sent meshulachhim to Metz and diverted the halukkah revenue from that source to his own section of the Holy Land. In a letter of Aryeh Judah Meisels of Apta, written in Jerusalem, the Ashkenazim accused the Sephardim of bad faith, declaring that, in spite of assurances to the contrary, the Ashkenazim were discriminated against and compelled to rely entirely upon their own resources.Luncz, Jerusalem, ii. 148–157.
The Ashkenazim of Safed remained united with the Sephardim and drew from the general halukkah. A letter dated 1778, and written from Safed by Israel Perez Polotzker to the gabbaim of Vitebsk, Russia, states that their meshulachim came to the house of Baruch Ananio, the head gabbai of the central committee at Constantinople, and received 3,000 lire. Out of this sum they paid 2,000 lire to the Pasha for taxes and 250 lire for expenses of the meshulachim, the balance (750 lire) going to the halukkah.MS. in New York Public Library. In the credentials issued to Rabbi Abraham ha-Kohen of Lask, a Jerusalem meshulach sent to Poland in 1783, the Sephardic central committee writes that Ashkenazim in the Holy Land were taken care of and given a proportionate share of the halukkah.Schwarz, "Tebu'at ha-Aretz".
Tiberias Hasidim
A group of the hasidim from South Russia settled in Tiberias. Their leader, Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, sent a meshulach regularly to Poland and Volhynia, and in a businesslike manner rendered receipts for past donations signed by the leaders in Tiberias, with requests for further assistance. Contributions poured in, and the only difficulty experienced by the meshulach was the safe delivery of the funds to Tiberias and Jerusalem, as the roads via Constantinople were infested by bands of robbers. He had to wait sometimes for three or four months for a protected vessel sailing from Constantinople to Haifa or Acre; and thence a safe-conduct with armed soldiers to Tiberias and Jerusalem was necessary. Meanwhile, the halukkah being exhausted, the Hasidim had to borrow money in anticipation of the next remittances. The requirements of the halukkah at that time exceeded 700 ducats."Hibat ha-Aretz," p. 61.