Tzedakah is Great!

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: Great is charity in that it brings close the redemption, as it is stated: “So said the Lord, uphold justice and do charity, for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed” (Isaiah 56:1).

Ulla said: Jerusalem will be redeemed only through righteousness, as it is stated: “Zion will be redeemed with justice and those who return to her with righteousness” (Isaiah 1:27).

These 600,000 particular souls, however, are “roots”; and, like a root from which grow numerous branches, each root-soul subdivides into 600,000 sparks, each spark being one Neshamah. Similarly with the Nefesh and Ruach, in each of the four Worlds — Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. In each of these four Worlds are found all three soul-levels — Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah.

Each spark did not descend into this world to perfect itself but to perfect the body and vital soul — as the Alter Rebbe will soon conclude.

[Having touched upon the subject of the soul’s descent, however, he adds a parenthetical comment emphasizing the magnitude of this descent. On entering this world, a soul may perhaps attain the loftiest heights of love and fear of G‑d that are experienced by a perfect tzaddik — but even this cannot compare to the love and fear that it experienced while in the spiritual worlds, before its descent.]

Though it is indeed a great descent, a veritable exile for the soul; for even if it become, in this world, a perfect tzaddik, serving G‑d with fear and abundant love of delights, it will not attain to the quality of its attachment to G‑d with fear and love that the soul experienced prior to its descent into this corporeal world, nor even [to] a fraction of [its earlier fear and love].

In fact, there is no comparison or similarity whatever between them — between the love and fear of G‑d experienced by a soul on earth, and that of the soul above; [for] as is obvious to every intelligent man, the body could not bear etc. a love and fear of such intensity as the soul experienced above, in the spiritual realms.

[Having concluded his comment on the formidable nature of the soul’s descent, the Alter Rebbe returns to his original point: The descent of the soul is thus undertaken not for its own sake —]

but its descent into this world, to be clothed in a body and vital soul, is for the sole purpose of perfecting them; to separate them from the evil of the three impure kelipot, by observing the 365 prohibitions and their “offshoots” i.e., by observing the Biblical and Rabbinic prohibitions, and to elevate his vital soul, together with the portion of the world at large that belongs to it, binding and uniting them with the Ein Sof-light which he draws into them by performing all the 248 positive mitzvot through the agency of the vital soul, since [the vital soul] is the one that performs all mitzvot involving action, as explained above, in ch. 36 — that the divine soul can activate the body in performance of the mitzvot only by way of the vital soul. It is likewise written (in Etz Chayim, Portal 26) that the [divine] soul itself does not need perfecting at all...; and there is no need for it to be embodied in this world, in a body and vital soul... except to draw down light to perfect them — the vital soul and the body...

and this parallels exactly the mystery of “the exile of the Shechinah,” whose purpose is to refine the sparks of holiness which fell into the kelipot; so too does the divine soul enter into exile within the body and vital soul in order to perfect them, and to extract from them the sparks of holiness which they contain.

[The foregoing discussion enables us to understand the particular virtue of mitzvot performed through action:

Creation, and the soul’s descent into the body, were both intended for the purpose of elevating the body and vital soul, and thereby the entire world; moreover, this objective is reached primarily through the mitzvot involving action, inasmuch as these mitzvot are performed by the body and vital soul; these mitzvot are therefore of primary importance.]

In light of the above, where it was explained that the advantage of the “active” mitzvot lies in their elevating effect on the body and vital soul, we can understand why our Sages so greatly extolled the virtue of charity, declaring it equal to all the other mitzvot together. In all of the Talmud Yerushalmi charity is called simply “The Commandment,” for such was the idiomatic expression commonly used to refer to charity: “The Commandment,” because charity is the core of all the mitzvot of action and surpasses them all. For the purpose of all these mitzvot is only to elevate one’s animal soul to G‑d, since it is this vital soul that performs them and clothes itself in them, so as to be absorbed into the blessed Ein Sof-light clothed in them. Now, you will find no other mitzvah in which the vital soul is clothed to the same extent as in the mitzvah of charity. For in all other mitzvot only one faculty of the vital soul is clothed (e.g., the faculty of action in the hand donning Tefillin or holding an etrog); and even this one faculty is clothed in the mitzvah only while the mitzvah is being performed. In the case of charity, however, which one gives from the proceeds of the toil of his hands, surely all the strength of his vital soul is clothed in (i.e., applied to) the effort of his labor, or in any other occupation by which he earned this money which he now distributes for charity.

Thus when he gives to charity this money to which he applied all the strength of his vital soul, his entire vital soul ascends to G‑d. Hence the superiority of charity over other mitzvot.

But this seems to imply that if one does not invest all his strength into earning his livelihood, his charity lacks this quality; to which the Alter Rebbe rejoins:

Even he who does not earn his livelihood from his labors, nevertheless, since he could have purchased with this money that he gave for charity, sustenance for the life of his vital soul, he is actually giving his soul’s life to G‑d in the form of charity. Thus, charity comprises and therefore elevates more energy of the vital soul than any other mitzvah.

This is why our Sages have said that charity hastens the Messianic redemption:

For with one act of charity one elevates a great deal of the vital soul; more of its faculties and powers, in fact, than he might elevate through many other active mitzvot [combined]. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the Messianic Era is a result of our efforts in purifying and elevating the vital soul; charity, which effects this elevation in such great measure, thus hastens the redemption.

We see, at any rate, that charity is superior to all other mitzvot, including Torah study.