Concerning the month of Elul, it says in Mishnat Chassidim that the צירוף of the שם הוי׳ to the month of Elul is ה׳ ה׳ ו׳ י׳. Because as we know, the שם הוי׳, which is made up of four letters, י׳ ק׳ ו׳ ק׳, has 12 צירופים. There are 12 different ways you can combine these four letters, which is known as the י״ב צירופי הוי׳. Because בכלל, when you have a few letters, you could combine it in different ways. For instance, you have the letter א׳ and ב׳, you could make two words out of it: either א״ב or ב״א. If you have three letters, then you can make six צירופים: א״ב ג׳, א״ג ב׳, ב״א ג׳, ב״ג א׳, ג״א ב׳, and ג״ב א׳. And when you have four letters, you could really make 24 צירופים. There are 24 different combinations you could make of these letters. Concerning the שם הוי׳, we only count י״ב צירופים, we only count 12 צירופים. Whatever the reason shall be, whether it is because we only count 12 out of the 24, or because since there are two ה׳s, two the same letters, so we could only make 12 צירופים. But whatever the reason is, we find that there are 12 צירופים for the שם הוי׳. And it says in sefarim that every month of the year is connected to a different צירוף of the שם הוי׳, is connected to a different combination of the letters of the שם הוי׳. So it says in Mishnat Chassidim, מסכת אלול, פרק א׳, משנה א׳, that the צירוף of שם הוי׳ that is connected to the month of Elul is ה׳ ה׳ ו׳ י׳. And then it says that the remez for this צירוף is in the פסוק וצדקה תהיה לנו כי, the פסוק in פרשת ואתחנן, קפיטל ו׳, פסוק כ״ה. Because every צירוף of שם הוי׳ has a remez in a different פסוק. So the remez for the צירוף of שם הוי׳ to the month of Elul is in the פסוק וצדקה תהיה לנו כי. Now, since the remez is in the פסוק וצדקה תהיה לנו כי, obviously this shows that the month of Elul has a special connection to the mitzvah of tzedakah. And the truth is, we find a remez to this inyan, a makor to this inyan that in the month of Elul you have to add in the mitzvah of tzedakah, in the Rambam. The Rambam writes in Hilchot Teshuvah, פרק ג׳, הלכה ד׳ that אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב, but even though blowing shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a din from the תורה, רמז יש בו, there is a remez in it, there is a hint in it, כלומר, and he says what is the hint: עורו ישנים משנתכם, people wake up from your sleep, and נרדמים מתרדמתכם, those that are in a deep sleep wake up from your deep sleep. Then he continues והטיבו דרכיכם, better your ways, and he goes on and on, then he says, מפני ענין זה, and because of this, נהגו כל בית ישראל, the minhag of all the Yidden is להרבות בצדקה ובמעשים טובים, that they add in tzedakah and in good deeds, ולעסוק במצוות, and doing מצוות, מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים, from Rosh Hashanah till Yom Kippur, יתר מכל השנה, more than the whole year. So we see here that the Rambam took out the din of tzedakah, the inyan of tzedakah, from the klal of maasim tovim v'laasok b'mitzvot. He mentions that during the עשרת ימי תשובה you should add in maasim tovim and לעסוק במצוות. Now tzedakah is one of the maasim tovim, it's one of the mitzvot. Nevertheless, the Rambam mentions tzedakah as a separate inyan. So from here we see that the most important thing that a person is supposed to stress during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is tzedakah. Bichlal you're supposed to add in all ma'asim tovim and in all mitzvot, but specifically, the most important one is the mitzvah of tzedakah.

Now, the Rambam writes this concerning עשרת ימי תשובה. From here we could learn out that מעין זה is also in the month of Elul. Because the month of Elul is מעין, is similar to עשרת ימי תשובה in many ways. First of all, Elul is the חודש התשובה, the month of teshuvah, similar to the עשרת ימי תשובה. And also, just like these 10 days are the הכנה, the preparation to the חתימה that takes place on Yom Kippur—we know on Yom Kippur that's when Hashem signs, seals the גזר דין—and because these 10 days are the הכנה, the preparation to this חתימה, therefore you have to add in צדקה ומעשים טובים ולעסוק במצוות these days, so the same way the whole month of Elul is also a הכנה, a preparation to the כתיבה, which is the beginning of the דין that takes place on Rosh Hashanah. So just like you have to do all this as a preparation to the חתימה, you have to do all this as a preparation to the כתיבה. And more than that, we know that all 40 days from Rosh Chodesh Elul till after Yom Kippur is one המשך, is one continuation, it's like one חפצא of time, it's like one unit of time, one unit of ימי תשובה. And like the Bach writes that from the פסוק אני לדודי ודודי לי, which is ראשי תיבות אלול, the סופי תיבות, the end, the last letters of these words is מ' is 40. אני ends with a י', לדודי ends with a י', ודודי ends with a י', and לי ends with a י'. So there are four yudin, it's 40. What is inyan of 40? So he says these are the 40 days from Rosh Chodesh Elul till Yom Kippur. And he says כי באלו מ' ימי התשובה because during these 40 days of תשובה מקובלת, the teshuvah is accepted more, and דודו קרוב לקבל תשובה מאהבה. דודו, which is the beloved one, which is Hashem, is close to every single Yid to accept his teshuvah me-ahavah. So we see that all 40 days are one unit. And therefore, whatever we find concerning the last 10 days, the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, automatically also applies to the first 30 days because it's all one unit. And therefore, since the Rambam says here that during the עשרת ימי תשובה you have to add all maasim tovim and mitzvot, but he mentions specifically the mitzvah of tzedakah, so from there we understand that the same thing applies to Elul, that you have to be marbeh mainly in tzedakah. And that fits to what we said before, that the Mishnat Chassidim says that the צירוף of שם הויה that's hinted concerning the month of Elul is in the פסוק וצדקה תהיה לנו כי.

But the question is, why is tzedakah so special? לכאורה, צדקה is a mitzvah like all other mitzvot, so why takeh is it very important to add in the mitzvah of tzedakah davka in the month of Elul? Now, one reason is a very simple reason: because tzedakah is mechaper for a chet. We know tzedakah is the way to get forgiven for the aveirah, as the pasuk says in Daniel קפיטל ד' פסוק כ\"ד, וחטאך בצדקה פרוק, that you could redeem your chet through tzedakah. And this, by the way, is the reason why the Rambam says that the minhag is להרבות בצדקה, to give a lot of tzedakah, and he doesn't give a shiur. Lichorah, normally we know that there is a shiur, a limit to how much tzedakah you could give. You have to give maaser, which is a tenth, and it says אל יבזבז יותר מחומש, you should not give more than 20%, as the Rambam himself paskens there under הלכות ערכין וחרמין. But here he says להרבות בצדקה, to give a lot of tzedakah without a limit, it seems. But the pshat is because this that there's a limit to tzedakah is only מצד the mitzvah itself. But if a person is interested in giving tzedakah because he wants to get a redemption for his aveirot, and so to speak, save his life, save his nefesh, then there is no limit. Just like there is no limit how much money a person will spend for doctors, because it's נוגע to saving his life, the same thing here. If a person does it because he wants to get a kaparah for his chataim, which is נוגע to his nefesh, there is no limit, and that's why the Rambam says להרבות בצדקה. So this is one explanation why it is important to give a lot of tzedakah during the month of Elul, do this mitzvah more than concerning other mitzvot.

But be'emet, there is another reason which is a deeper reason than that. We know בכלל, when a person gets things that he needs from Hashem, there are two ways. As the Gemara says in Berachot דף י\"ז עמוד ב', based on the פסוק in ישעיה קפיטל מ\"ו פסוק י\"ב, שמעו אלי אבירי לב הרחוקים מצדקה. Listen to me, those that have a strong heart, who are far from tzedakah. But the Gemara says, what does that mean? That כל העולם כולו ניזון בצדקה, the whole world is supported through the tzedakah of השם, והם ניזונים בזרוע, and they, which means tzadikim, they get their support, their food, בזרוע, by hand, by force, you must give it to them. Which means like this: כל העולם, the whole world gets their needs from Hashem only in the form of tzedakah and chesed from Hashem, it's because of the kindness of Hashem, but it's not because of the zechut that they have, because they are people who do not deserve it. And therefore, when Hashem gives it to them, it's only a chesed and tzedakah that He does to them. But the tzadikim are ניזונים בזרוע, they get it בזרוע by hand, by force, which means, as Rashi explains there, בזכות שבידם, with the zechut of their hand, the zechut that they have, וקרי להו רחוקים מצדקתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, and they are called far from the tzedakah of Hashem because they don't have to get their support from Hashem because of tzedakah, they get it because they deserve it. So lichora, it comes out that some people have to get it as tzedakah. The tzadikim don't have to get it in the form of tzedakah. So concerning those people that have to get it in the form of tzedakah, already right away we understand why it's so important to give tzedakah, because in the month of Elul, when the is waiting for Hashem to give him a כתיבה וחתימה טובה, and the way Hashem will give it to him will only be in the form of tzedakah because he doesn't deserve it. So we know Hashem does middah k'neged middah. So therefore, in order for Hashem to give him tzedakah, he has to show that he gives tzedakah. And that's why out of all mitzvot it's important bedavka to give tzedakah, so Hashem will give him tzedakah. But lichora, this is only concerning those people who get supported by Hashem through tzedakah. What about those tzadikim that we said that ניזונים בזרוע? They get it בזכות שבידם, with their own zechus, because they deserve it. L'chorah, for them it's not important bedavka to do the mitzvah of tzedakah. But the emes is not so. Even for them it's important to give tzedakah, because this itself, that their zechusim makes them deserve that Hashem should support them, is also be'emes a tzedakah. Because sof kol sof, what kind of comparison does מעשה בני אדם, the actions of people, have לגבי Hashem, that because they do what they do, Hashem should give them? There's a pasuk that says in איוב קפיטל ל\"ה פסוק ז', \"אם צדקת מה תתן לו,\" if you do tzedakah, which means if you're a righteous, what do you give Him? \"רבו פשעיך מה תעשה לו,\" you do a lot of aveirot, what do you do to Him? In other words, when a Yid does good, l'chorah, what kind of תפיסת מקום, what kind of חשיבות, what kind of importance does that have by Hashem? To say that because of his actions Hashem will do so and so? It's even further than a person would say that whatever an ant on the floor does would affect him, and that because of that ant, he will do so and so. As far as an ant is from a person, a person is further away from Hashem. So l'chorah, what kind of effect can the action of a person have? And furthermore, even if we are going to say that the actions of a person do have an effect, but the Chazal say in Vayikra Rabbah פרשה כ\"ז, ב', based on the pasuk in איוב קפיטל מ\"א, פסוק ג', \"מי הקדימני ואשלם,\" that be'emes, all the actions of a person are also done through the help of Hashem. So therefore, be'emes, it's impossible to say that a person deserves anything from Hashem. And therefore, even those people who get it because they deserve, it's also a form of tzedakah. It's also because Hashem made them deserve, so really it comes from Hashem. So they, on their own, really really don't deserve anything. And that is also the meaning what Rashi says in the beginning of Parashat Vaetchanan, that אף על פי שיש להם לצדיקים לתלות במעשיהם הטובים, that even though the tzadikim could be תולה and ask from Hashem based on their good deeds, אין מבקשים מאת המקום אלא מתנת חנם. Nevertheless, they ask from Hashem only a matnat chinam, a matnah, a present for free. And the pshat is, because they realize that even though they have maasim tovim, and they deserve all the things that they want, but essentially, the fact that they deserve it is also because of Hashem. So sof kol sof, it's all a matnat chinam. And therefore, even these tzadikim also have to come onto the tzedakah of Hashem, and therefore this that the Rambam says that during עשרת ימי תשובה you are מרבה בצדקה, he mentions tzedakah separately, even though he says that you have to add in all מעשים טובים and all mitzvot, because as we said before, this is to show that we want a tzedakah from Hashem applies even to צדיקים גדולים also, because they also have to come onto the tzedakah of Hashem. And באמת,

this is what the Rambam means in what he says there further. The Rambam continues there and he says, \"ונהגו כולם לקום בלילה בעשרה ימים אלו,\" that the minhag of everybody is to get up at night during these 10 days, \"ולהתפלל בבתי כנסיות,\" and to daven in the shuls, \"בדברי תחנונים,\" in words of begging, \"ובכיבושים עד שיאור היום,\" till the morning. So he mentions specifically the inyan of davenen, and he says it through the expression דברי תחנונים. Why? Because since, as we said before, the only way we're able to get from Hashem is a מתנת חנם, which means you beg Hashem for having pity on you, because no matter what you don't deserve it, that's why what is stressed here is the תפלה בדברי תחנונים. דברי תחנונים means that you ask Hashem, you beg Him. So the Rambam stresses that point, that you have to ask Hashem and beg Him, because otherwise, as many zechuyot as you have, it's still not enough because we never could say that you deserve it, and therefore you always have to come onto דברי תחנונים. And that's why the minhag during עשרת ימי תשובה is to add in the דברי תחנונים. And as we said before, the same thing applies also to the month of Elul. And באמת in one way it's even more important for the month of Elul, because the month of Elul comes before Rosh Hashanah, and this is important for the inyan of Rosh Hashanah. Because the חז\"ל say in Rosh Hashanah ט\"ז עמוד א' that Hashem says, \"אמרו לפני בראש השנה מלכיות, זכרונות, ושופרות; מלכיות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם.\" That Hashem wants us to make Him Him a king on us. He wants us to crown Him as king, just like in the mashal of a physical king, that the people crown the king as king, then after he becomes king, then he tells the people what to do and they listen to him. The same is with Hashem, that before we even have the inyan of mitzvot of Hashem, there has to be the kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, the accepting Hashem as king. And when does this take place? On Rosh Hashanah. That's when Hashem says, תמליכוני עליכם, make Me your king, you accept Me as your king. How do people accept a melech, a מלך בשר ודם? Through telling the king, we give ourselves over to you, and we accept you as our boss, and whatever we have belongs really to you. And the same is concerning Hashem, that how do we show Hashem that we accept Him as king on Rosh Hashanah? It's through our showing bitul to Hashem, showing how we give ourselves over to Hashem. We realize that we are nothing, and Hashem is the baal habayit, Hashem is the boss, Hashem is everything, and we give ourselves over to Him. One of the ways we show Hashem that we realize we are nothing and everything is He, is through this inyan that we realize that we don't deserve anything, and whatever He gives us is a form of tzedakah. And therefore, when we add in the mitzvah of tzedakah during the month of Elul, which as we said before, shows that we realize that in order to get a כתיבה וחתימה טובה, it is a צדקה וחסד of Hashem, and that's why we give tzedakah, so we have middah k'neged middah, by us giving tzedakah to people who we don't really owe, Hashem will give us tzedakah, He will give us כתיבה וחתימה טובה, even though He doesn't owe it to us, which means we don't deserve it. So by giving tzedakah, we actually show that we have this feeling that we don't deserve anything, so this is an expression of our bitul. So when we express our bitul, by the time it comes to Rosh Hashanah, then we really are able to fulfill this תמליכוני עליכם. And therefore, as important as it is to be מרבה in tzedakah and to express our feeling that we are nothing and we don't really deserve anything, it's all tzedakah of Hashem, during the עשרת ימי תשובה, it's even more important during the month of Elul, because since that's before Rosh Hashanah, this is the הכנה to the תמליכוני עליכם, to the fact that we show our bitul to Hashem, and we accept Hashem as our