Donate to Kupat HaIr, or Hashem may smite your children!

An advertisement in last week's Five Towns Jewish Times.

Typically they prey on the fears and desperation of the childless or seriously ill, telling them that the path to yeshua is a donation. And for a salvation outside the domain of derech hateva, one needs to give more than the teva would dictate.

Here, it seems as if they are raising the spectre of harm or death to Jewish children, if their parents do not donate to this specific charity. I would like to think that apart for this, the Gedolim care for all of klal Yisrael and pray in general that no Jewish children are harmed this summer.

Besides frightening parents and cynically using that fear to collect money for their cause (however deserving that cause may be), they are influencing the practices and beliefs of Judaism. They are turning Gedolim, and the prayers of Gedolim, into commodities. And it makes tzedaka into a segulah and into a mechanism of getting what one wants.

Now, perhaps this is not the end of the world. After all, the gemara states that

האומר סלע זו לצדקה בשביל שיחיו בני ובשביל שאזכה בה לחיי העולם הבא הרי זה צדיק גמור לא קשיא כאן בישראל כאן באומות העולם

But then again, Rashi states that this is because regardless, the Yisrael will intend it leshem shamayim. And perhaps these people will. But it seems that if not for this, the thought-process is one of purchasing favors. (Meanwhile, Daryevesh was considered evil, despite giving gifts to kohanim, with those gifts not being counted as evidence of righteousness because he only gave them such that they would pray for him and his children.)

Regardless, while this answer might exist in the gemara, it seems that tzedaka campaigns featuring Gedolim with this message only serves to increase the thought process of purchasing favors with charity, which the gemara in the end does not seem to consider a positive attitude.

I'll also note that it seems that Iyov took a similar attitude before the deaths of his sons and daughters:

ד וְהָלְכוּ בָנָיו וְעָשׂוּ מִשְׁתֶּה, בֵּית אִישׁ יוֹמוֹ; וְשָׁלְחוּ, וְקָרְאוּ לִשְׁלֹשֶׁת אַחְיֹתֵיהֶם, לֶאֱכֹל וְלִשְׁתּוֹת, עִמָּהֶם.	4 And his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one upon his day; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
ה וַיְהִי כִּי הִקִּיפוּ יְמֵי הַמִּשְׁתֶּה וַיִּשְׁלַח אִיּוֹב וַיְקַדְּשֵׁם, וְהִשְׁכִּים בַּבֹּקֶר וְהֶעֱלָה עֹלוֹת מִסְפַּר כֻּלָּם--כִּי אָמַר אִיּוֹב, אוּלַי חָטְאוּ בָנַי וּבֵרְכוּ אֱלֹהִים בִּלְבָבָם: כָּכָה יַעֲשֶׂה אִיּוֹב, כָּל הַיָּמִים. {פ}	5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said: 'It may be that my sons have sinned, and blasphemed God in their hearts.' Thus did Job continually.{P}