May the Lord bless their substance, and may the work of their hand be acceptable, that they may be accepted before the Lord at all times. So may the Lord give and do so yet further to encourage them amongst the valiant. And he that is noble should ever persist by noble things, to be great in causing others to do— in every city and congregation, and it will be accounted to him for righteousness (tzedakah). And of him who does (himself) it is said "His tzedakah omedet (stands) forever;" omedet, in feminine gender, because he receives the arousal of his pure heart from the one that is "greater— who causes others to do." Nevertheless, it stands forever. This means:
All the acts of charity and kindness the Israelites perform in this world out of the generosity of their pure hearts, are alive and subsist in this physical world until the time of the resurrection. Then there will be a time of manifestation of Divinity and of the light of the blessed En Sof, from the rank of sovev kol almin, in this world, and as explained at length in the letter of last year. But there needs to be a vessel and an abode wherein the light of the blessed En Sof can vest itself, just as the body is (a vessel) to the soul, metaphorically speaking. Thus it is written: "Is not My word like fire;" just as fire does not radiate in this world except when it is attached to, and vests itself in the wick .... as explained elsewhere.
The body and the vessel for His blessed light is the attribute of kindness and the generosity of the heart to give and effuse vitality to him who has not.... Thus it is stated in the Tikunim: "And many bodies You have prepared for them, and in this preparation they are called: chesed— the right arm," and the whole body is included in the right side. And thus said the composer: "His garment is tzedakah." This is the meaning of what our sages, of blessed memory, said: "Charity is recompensed only according to the kindness in it, as it is written: sow to yourselves for tzedakah, reap according to the kindness." For the harvest is the manifestation of the seed hidden in,the soil. It is likewise with the charity and kindness the Israelites perform in the time of the exile: it is hidden and concealed until the time of the resurrection when the light of the blessed En Sof will vest itself and radiate in this physical world. And (when) He is one with His causations, i.e. the aspects of the kelim of the ten Sefirot of Atzilut, thus a fortiori, and a minori ad majus, (He is one) with the light of the blessed En Sof which encompasses all worlds from exceedingly higher than the sphere of Atzilut.
That is why (charity) is referred to as tzedakah, a feminine gender ["his tzedakah omedet forever"]. For it receives a radiation from the light of the En Sof that encompasses all worlds, which vests itself in it in this physical world at the time of the resurrection. "Tzedek shall go before him," however, is a masculine gender. It is the attribute of kindness that is aroused in the heart of man of itself, through the arousal of the love of G‑d when reading the Shema— to cleave unto Him and to surrender his soul at echad; and "with all your wealth"— in the literal sense,,.. And the arousal from below ["As waters (reflect) the face to face, so is the heart of— the Supernal— man..," ] elicits an arousal from above, i.e. an effulgence of the light of the blessed En Sof that encompasses all worlds, to the nethermost in this physical world, in a state of manifestation, at the time of the resurrection, as explained at length in last year's letter.
And this is the meaning of yehalech before Him." For (tzedek) leads and elicits the Supernal Countenance (panim) from higher than Atzilut to the world of 'Asiyah. But now is a time to be brief, and may He not restrain from them all the good. Do good, O Lord, unto the good, and unto those that are upright in their heart, as is the wish of him who seeks it.
almost none of us at any given time are righteous enough or worthy enough The truth is almost none of us at any given time are righteous enough or worthy enough to merit entry into heaven when our time comes. It takes many trials and tribulations in this material world or elsewhere in the spiritual universe, our souls are repeatedly recalled to do different tasks here or there designed to correct us, and many soul cleansing and purifying times until they are righteous enough or perfect enough to remain permanently where they want to be. In other words, there is no such thing as eternal damnation, souls that are still in a state of impurity gain repeated attempts to get rectified until they are. Of course there are some souls who enter heaven even though they are not upright enough because they earned over-riding merits on account of having performed or having caused great benefits to happen to many others. Eventually over the course of many lifetimes (physical or spiritual) in the material world or elsewhere, most of us end up in heaven, even souls who were considered very evil at one time or more. It is a rare instance that a soul has become so evil, so contaminated, impossible to correct that it is obliterated completely. Most of us are old souls who have been here before many times. Maybe one in a million by any given time is a completely newly created soul.