אַאַזְמוּ"ר בִּאֵר פַּעַם בְּמַאֲמָר, הָא דְרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר יָהִיב פְּרוּטָה לְעָנִי וְהָדַר מַצְלֵי, כִּי הֲרֵי הַתְּפִלָּה צְרִיכָה לִהְיוֹת בְּחַיּוּת, וְעַל יְדֵי שֶׁנּוֹתְנִים צְדָקָה לְעָנִי קוֹדֶם הַתְּפִלָּה וּמְחַיִּים אוֹתוֹ, נִתּוֹסַף חַיּוּת הַרְבֵּה בִּתְּפִלָּה. וְנִעֲנַע בְּיָדוֹ מִמַּטָּה לְמַעְלָה לְרַמֵז שֶׁהָרִבּוּי בְּהַפְלָאָה. — וְכַמָּה פְּעָמִים קוֹדֶם הַתְּפִלָּה הָיָה אַאַמוּ"ר מְחַזֵּר אַחֲרֵי עָנִי לִתֵּן לוֹ לֶאֱכוֹל.

In the course of a maamar, my revered grandfather, [the Rebbe Maharash,] once commented on a statement of the Sages:1 “R. Elazar would give a coin to a poor person and then pray.” [He explained:] “Prayer should be energetic. Giving tzedakah to a poor person and enlivening him before praying greatly increases one’s own vitality while praying.” And as my grandfather said these last words he waved his hands upward, to indicate a truly wondrous increase.

Before my father, [the Rebbe Rashab,] began to daven, he would often search for a poor person2 to whom to give something to eat.3

Probing Beneath the Surface

Vitality in one’s Divine service is no mere dispensable frill. R Moshe Veber — a widely revered chassid in Jerusalem, who showed unusual vigor even in his later years — would cite our prayers on Pesach4 and Shemini Atzeres,5 where we ask that dew and rain be granted “for life and not for death,” and would ask: “Why the apparent repetition? Isn’t it self-evident that anyone who is not dead is obviously alive?”

And he would answer his own question: “A Jew who is trying to serve G‑d conscientiously knows that being clinically ‘not dead’ does not yet mean that he is truly alive. Being alive means pulsating with joyful and energetic vitality!”6

When a person is vitally interested in something, his exuberance manifests physically. His heart beats faster, his adrenaline flows. This extra energy enhances the way he thinks and feels.

The fundamental thrust of the advice given by the Rebbe Maharash can be followed even if there is no one in sight who is poor or hungry; likewise, it can be followed even if a poor and hungry man is in sight, but one has no spare food or money to give him. For one person can enliven another significantly by something as inexpensive as a smile. Accordingly, the Sages advise that if one has no money to give the poor man, “he should let him see that his heart is kind — that he would like to give him something, but that he has not got the means to do so.”7

Indeed, in the Laws regarding Gifts to the Poor (10:4), Rambam goes further: “If, while giving charity to a pauper, the donor’s unfriendly countenance is facing the ground, even if he gave him a thousand gold coins he has forfeited his merit. Rather, he should make his donation with a friendly and cheerful countenance and commiserate with the poor man in his distress. As Iyov (Job) said, ‘Did I not weep for the unfortunate? Did I not grieve for the needy?’ One should speak to the pauper with words of supplication and consolation. In the words of Iyov, ‘I gladdened the heart of the widow.’”