QUESTION : May Jews participate in a communal construction effort to build housing for the poor on shabbat? Does this mitzvah override shabbat?
ANSWER: We agree with the responsum of 1986 that Jews should not participate. This is not a case of“danger to life” and it can be undertaken on any other day; Jews may contribute financially to the project. The sanctity of the shabbat should not be violated.
(Teshuvot for the Nineties, p. 169)
SOME CONCLUSIONS
The success of the efforts at tzedakah far exceed the wildest dreams of any talmudic or earlier sage. Through the centuries the communities, no matter how poor and beleaguered, have taken care of the poor. Scholars inflexible in other areas were willing to change the poverty line in accordance with the standard of living in their time, encouraged different methods of collection and distribution, turned voluntary efforts into taxes, and welcomed foundations and other institutions. Anything that met the changing needs was adopted, even if it went counter to long-held traditions. In our own age of the welfare state, fzedakah, interestingly enough, has become the main pillar of modern Judaism for middle-and upper-class Jews .