Iggeret HaKodesh, Epistle 9 - Part 2

Like the preceding epistle, the present one too centers on the theme of tzedakah.

If it is to be performed properly, tzedakah ought to be given unstintingly, and not only after all of one’s own needs and desires have been satisfied. Ideally, it should be given in the spirit of an aphorism that was current among the Chasidim of the Alter Rebbe: “Inside my slice of bread, there is your share too; G‑d is providing for you through me.”1

A man should thus feel obligated to share with others and provide for their needs to the very same degree that he provides for his own wife and children. Performing tzedakah in this manner can only be achieved when one distributes one’s earnings in an utterly selfless manner, doing so entirely for G‑d’s sake. Then, even when one provides for his own family’s needs, he will do so because they are Jewish souls who are part of G‑d Above,2 and as such, he bears a responsibility toward them.

When one acts in this way, he will realize that all needy folk are also Jewish souls and part of G‑d Above; he must therefore concern himself with their needs as well. Though the Torah rules that providing for one’s own wife and children takes precedence over providing for the needs of others, the essential sense of obligation remains the same.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, explains in one of his talks4 that when the Alter Rebbe seeks to imbue his followers with the love of their fellow Jews, he addresses them as “my beloved friends,” for by befriending a fellow Jew, one becomes a “beloved friend” of the Alter Rebbe.

Accordingly, it may be said that by heeding the Alter Rebbe’s instructions with regard to tzedakah, one becomes one of the Alter Rebbe’s “beloved brethren.”

Physical things at any time are deemed hevel: being airy and insubstantial, they have no true existence. When they serve no loftier purpose than themselves, they may be given the double epithet used above—havlei havalim,5 airy and foolish trivialities.

When the soul finds itself within the body and allows itself to be led by it, it resembles a sighted person whose eyes are bound and who, intelligent though he may be, is then led about like an imbecile. If the soul, a part of G‑d Above, descends within a body but cannot restrict it from fulfilling its desires, it is considered to be blinded by the body, as the Tzemach Tzedek writes in Or Hatorah at the conclusion of Parashat Behar.6 The “blindness” caused by the body must be healed so that the soul may once again behold the truth.

Not only during prayer or Torah study or while performing mitzvot is a Jew to be bound to G‑d, but even while going about his mundane affairs, he should be attached to Him as well.

I.e., since one loves himself, he also loves his wife and children, who are a part of him. Rather, his love should be holy in its selflessness.

The concept of the Unity of G‑d signifies that apart from Him, nothing truly exists.

This means to say that immediately upon opening his eyes after reciting the Shema, such a person can view the world as if it were a self-sufficient entity, separate and distinct from its Creator; accordingly, moreover, he conducts his affairs in a selfish manner rather than for the sake of heaven.

In imitation of G‑d, Who thus dispenses kindness and animates all created beings, man too should act kindly toward others and sustain those in need. Indeed, this should be his ultimate purpose when engaging in his work or in commerce: to be able to provide sustenance for the souls of his fellow Jews.

According to the above, however, one should provide for the needs of others to the very same degree that he provides for his own family. Why, then, should the needs of one’s own family take precedence over the needs of others? The Alter Rebbe answers this by saying:

The Alter Rebbe wrote this epistle in connection with the tzaddikim, R. Mendele Vitebsker and R. Avraham Kalisker, as well as their colleagues and disciples, who at the time of writing had already left the Diaspora and were living in the Holy Land. The Alter Rebbe therefore goes on to say:

The Mishnah states in Peah: “The study of the Torah is equivalent to them all,”25 i.e., to all the mitzvot previously enumerated in the Mishnah, and these include gemilut chassadim, the performance of acts of lovingkindness,

I.e., the sefirah called malchut of Atzilut, the Shechinah that vests itself in the lower Worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah—also known as the “Sukkah of David,” for David, as the King of Israel, was a merkavah to malchut of Atzilut—has fallen to the lowest level of Asiyah.

But why is charity unique among all the many commandments that involve action?

Among the currents of Divine influence that descend into the various worlds, there are those that are called “thought” and “speech.” The flow of vitality to the very lowest level—to the World of Asiyah, where G‑dliness is not at all manifest—is called “action.”

The act of giving tzedakah thus truly corresponds to the spiritual level of Asiyah, inasmuch as it too provides beneficence to one “who has nothing of his own.”

At that time, the physical eye, though yet retaining its physicality, will behold G‑dliness as it is beheld by the supernal eye. Thus, within the physicality of the World of Asiyah, there will be revealed the level of certainty in spiritual perception, which is called vision—a level that far surpasses the furthest attainments of the intellect.