You Have to Ask

So today I started fund-raising in earnest for both Waves to Wine and the Israel Hazon ride.  We often find ourselves living at the intersection of two conflicting ideas or emotions.  On the one hand, who enjoys asking people for money, even when for a good cause.  On the other hand, soliciting for a good cause provides people the opportunity to do a mitzvah, and to act on their altruistic impulses.  Somewhere, I think this is high up on Maimonides’s ladder of charity. Here’s how the ladder looks from one Muslim’s point of view.