In the previous section we learned that the soul descends into a body in order to refine that body and the nefesh hachiyunis (the vital, animating soul), and that the ultimate purpose is dirah betachtonim, a dwelling place for G-d in the lowest realm, which is why the body is the main thing. Now the Alter Rebbe continues and explains the unique greatness of tzedakah.
The Greatness of Tzedakah:
Here the Alter Rebbe writes: «ובזה יובן», «And with this we can understand». With everything we have learned until now, that the whole purpose is the deed and dirah betachtonim, we can now understand «מה שהפליגו רבותינו ז"ל במאוד מאוד במעלת הצדקה», «why our Sages spoke in such extraordinary terms about the greatness of tzedakah». Why do the Sages of Israel, in the Gemara and elsewhere, praise tzedakah so highly? One could gather a whole collection of statements of Chazal whose common theme is just how great a thing tzedakah is, the greatest there can be. «ואמרו ששקולה כנגד כל המצוות», «and they said that it is equal to all the mitzvos together».
And here is another indication of how central it is: «ובכל תלמוד ירושלמי היא נקראת בשם 'מצווה' סתם», «and throughout the Talmud Yerushalmi it is called simply 'the mitzvah'». Anywhere in the Yerushalmi that the word «mitzvah» appears without qualification, it means tzedakah. It is so important that there is no need to name it: if a person says «I am going to do a mitzvah», nobody asks which mitzvah. «The mitzvah» is tzedakah.
Why should tzedakah be the one called simply «the mitzvah»?
The reason is straightforward, and it emerges from everything we have learned so far. The purpose of all the mitzvos is to refine this world, to repair and refine physicality. And so, by simple arithmetic, the mitzvah whose refining work reaches across the widest expanse is the mitzvah of tzedakah. No other mitzvah operates over such a broad range.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «מפני שהיא עיקר המצוות מעשיות», «because it is the essence of the practical mitzvos». Of all the practical mitzvos, in which the deed is the main thing, tzedakah is the essential one among them, «ועולה על כולנה», «and it rises above them all», in the sheer power with which it refines the deed and the physical. And the reason: «שכולן הן רק להעלות נפש החיונית להשם», «for all of them exist only in order to elevate the nefesh hachiyunis to G-d».
In Each Mitzvah Only One Faculty Is Invested:
Take tefillin as an example. A Jew who puts on tefillin sanctifies his left arm (with the right hand assisting) and his head, but the stomach, the leg and the ears have no part in the act of tefillin. And so it is with every single mitzvah: it acts upon certain vital limbs, upon particular portions of the body and of the nefesh hachiyunis.
[This does not refer to the effect of the mitzvah in the upper worlds, which is not our subject here, but to the physical body and the vitality within it, which is what the mitzvah is meant to act upon.]
In his words: «אין לך מצווה שנפש החיונית מתלבשת בה כל כך כמצוות הצדקה», «there is no mitzvah in which the nefesh hachiyunis is invested as fully as in the mitzvah of tzedakah». In tzedakah the entire nefesh hachiyunis is present. And the explanation is simple: «שבכל המצוות אין מתלבש בהן רק כוח אחד מנפש החיונית», «for in all other mitzvos only one faculty of the nefesh hachiyunis is invested», «וזה רק בשעת מעשה המצווה לבד», «and that only during the actual performance of the mitzvah». In other words, in the fulfillment of any given mitzvah only a particular faculty is invested, and one can pinpoint exactly which energy went into it. And even that energy is channeled into the mitzvah only while it is being performed; once a person has finished, those same faculties turn to other matters.
One Who Gives Tzedakah from the Labor of His Hands:
A person gives ten shekels to tzedakah. Where did that money come from? From his work, from his salary. And how many of his faculties went into that work: getting there on time, doing the job properly, succeeding at it, holding on to his position until the end of the month so as to receive his full salary. He invested literally all of himself, all of his energy.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «בצדקה, שאדם נותן מיגיע כפיו, הרי כל כוח נפשו החיונית מלובש בעשיית מלאכתו או עסק אחר שנשתכר בו מעות אלו», «when a person gives tzedakah from the labor of his hands, all the power of his nefesh hachiyunis is invested in the work or the business through which he earned that money». In that very coin he is giving, all of him is present, «וכשנותנן לצדקה - הרי כל נפשו החיונית עולה להשם», «and when he gives it to tzedakah, his entire nefesh hachiyunis ascends to G-d». Anyone who has truly toiled for his money feels, as he takes it out of his pocket for tzedakah, as though a piece of his life were being taken from him, because he really did invest his life in it.
Elsewhere in Tanya it is explained that even one who gives a tenth or a fifth draws his entire salary along with it, all one hundred percent. For with this giving he declares that everything belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He: «Master of the world, I give You from what is Yours, for everything is Yours, and the ninety percent that remains in my hands I have received anew as a gift from You». This is not the giving of someone who says «the ninety percent is mine and I am willing to hand You ten». It is exactly the reverse: everything is Yours, and You are the One who gave me back the ninety.
And this is stated explicitly in Chumash with Rashi's commentary: when a person does not give maaser, the whole arrangement is reversed. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: in that case, I will take the ninety to Myself and leave you the ten.
One Who Gives from What He Did Not Toil For:
And what about someone who does not live off the labor of his own hands, for instance a person who received a gift and gives tzedakah from that gift? (A pensioner is not quite the right example either, since his pension comes to him from the decades of labor that preceded it.) Where is a person's whole life to be found in such an act of tzedakah?
Here too, though not with the full force of one who gives from his own toil, the same principle applies: «וגם מי שאינו נהנה מיגיעו, מכל מקום, הואיל ובמעות אלו היה יכול לקנות חיי נפשו החיונית - הרי נותן חיי נפשו להשם», «and even one who does not live off his own labor, nevertheless, since with this money he could have purchased the life of his nefesh hachiyunis, he is giving the life of his soul to G-d». And one need not reach for far-fetched scenarios. A person finds himself somewhere where he must drink, and a cup of water costs a few shekels. Sometimes a handful of shekels is what restores his vitality to him. It turns out that the value of those shekels is life itself. And even though he did not invest his life in order to obtain them, they are still worth life. So when he gives them to tzedakah, he has given the equivalent of life.
«Great is Tzedakah, for It Brings the Redemption Closer»:
So tzedakah carries with it very broad circles of a person's life, all handed over to G-d. And since the purpose of all the mitzvos is to sanctify the world, and the purpose of sanctifying the world is to bring about the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead, which depend on «our deeds and our service», it follows that each mitzvah sanctifies one portion of the world and another mitzvah sanctifies another portion. And because tzedakah sanctifies such wide circles of the world, it is the mitzvah that brings the redemption closer more than any other.
«ולכן אמרו רז"ל ש'מקרבת את הגאולה'», «and this is why our Sages said that it 'brings the redemption closer'». Tzedakah sanctifies more and more portions of the world, and thereby finally brings about the ultimate purpose: a dwelling place for Him in the lowest realm. In his words: «לפי שבצדקה אחת מעלה הרבה מנפש החיונית, מה שלא היה יכול להעלות ממנה כל כך כוחות ובחינות בכמה מצוות מעשיות אחרות», «because with a single act of tzedakah a person elevates a great deal of his nefesh hachiyunis, more faculties and dimensions than he could have elevated through many other practical mitzvos». That is why one mitzvah of tzedakah is equal to many other mitzvos: because it has the power to sanctify and elevate so many portions of the world.
We remain, then, with the same idea and the same line of thought: the purpose of everything is to sanctify that which is lowest, the physical and the material, and this is done through the practical mitzvos, «la'asoso», to make it. The Alter Rebbe explained this in chapter 35 as well, where he brought at length the words of the Yenuka in the Zohar: what is the oil in the lamp that sustains the flame? Good deeds. He did not say «Torah» but specifically stressed good deeds, because Torah acts upon the spiritual level of the soul, in thought and in speech, while the practical mitzvos act upon the physical level of the soul.
In summary: in this section we learned why the Talmud Yerushalmi habitually calls tzedakah simply «the mitzvah»: because it is the essence of the practical mitzvos and rises above them all. In every other mitzvah only one faculty of the nefesh hachiyunis is invested, and even that only during the performance of the mitzvah itself. With tzedakah, however, whether one gives from the labor of his own hands, where all the faculties of his nefesh hachiyunis are invested in the work through which he earned that money, or one gives from what he did not toil for, since with that money he could have purchased the life of his nefesh hachiyunis, his entire nefesh hachiyunis ascends to G-d. Hence tzedakah sanctifies wide circles of the world, and therefore «great is tzedakah, for it brings the redemption closer».
In the next section we will take up the question the Alter Rebbe himself raises: if so, why do we say every morning «talmud Torah keneged kulam», the study of Torah is equal to them all? And «equal to them all» means even equal to tzedakah. On the face of it, this statement contradicts the principle that the deed is the main thing. Certainly there is no contradiction in Torah; rather, each completes the other. How exactly, we will learn, G-d willing, in what follows.