there in the Gemara, we find two opinions. It tells ר' מאיר אומר, Reb Meir says, הן הן בני דוד בן יהודה, that these were the children from David ben Yehuda, which means David Hamelech, that this was the family, the descendants of David Hamelech. They were the ones donated the wood on the twentieth day of Av. Rabbi' Yosi says, הן הן בני יואב בן צרויה, that these were the children of Yoav ben Tzeruya, the general of David Hamelech. They were the descendants of Yoav. Lichora, how is there a possibility to have a machloket in metziut, in a fact? We find that usually there is no argument concerning a metziut, concerning a fact. The arguments in Gemara are usually in a halacha, but in a metziut, we don't find an argument. Plus, we know what the Gemara says in Eruvin דף יג עמוד ב and Gittin דף ו עמוד ב that אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים. Whenever we find an argument in Gemara, so both opinions are the words of Hashem. So in this case, how can we say that both opinions are the words of Hashem? Was it the family of David ben Yehuda or was it the family of Yoav ben Tzeruya? The answer is very simple: because both families were מתחתן, both families intermarried, and the descendants of both families were the ones that brought the korban, the wood, on the twentieth day of Av. So then what is the machloket between Rabbi' Meir and Rabbi' Yosi? The machloket is which zechut was stronger, that that was the reason why this family brought the wood on the twentieth of Av. Rabbi' Meir holds that the zechut of David Hamelech was the reason that brought about, awakened within them the will, the ratzon, to bring the wood on the twentieth of Av. And Rabbi' Yosi holds that the zechut of Yoav ben Tzeruyah, that is the thing that awakened within them and brought out within them the fact that they brought the wood on the twentieth of Av. Lichorah,

what is so special about bringing the wood on the twentieth of Av that we're looking for a reason why they did it? Since we explained the machloket is which zechut caused them to bring this nedavah on the twentieth of Av, obviously there must be something special here, that for that, you have to have a special zechut. What's so special about bringing a nedavah of wood on the twentieth of Av? But the pshat is as follows: The Gemara says in Taanit דף לא עמוד א, מחמשה עשר באב ואילך תשש כחה של חמה. From the fifteenth day of Av and on, the strength of the of the sun weakened, ולא היו כורתין עצים למערכה מפני שאינם יבשים, and they wouldn't cut any more wood for the מערכה, for the mizbeach, because they are not dry. The din is that wood that has worms in it is pasul for the mizbeach. And therefore, when the koach of the חמה, the strength of the sun is weak, so then the wood is not so dry, so we could be choshes that maybe there are worms in the wood. And therefore, from חמשה עשר באב and on, you couldn't cut any more wood for the מערכה. The

first ones that gave a nedavah of wood after חמשה עשר באב was the ones that gave on the twentieth of Av. In order to have wood on the twentieth of Av to give to the לשכה in the Beit Hamikdash, the wood had to be cut before, because if it was cut on that day, it was pasul because you couldn't cut after חמשה עשר באב. So it comes out that when they gave the wood to the Beit Hamikdash, it was already a time when you couldn't get any new wood. You couldn't cut any wood now, and they gave away the wood that was so precious. Being that you couldn't get it anymore, it was very precious, and nevertheless, they gave it away. And more than that: in order to be able to give a lot of wood on the twentieth of Av, you had to think about it a lot before. You had to investigate and you had to prepare before, because if you wouldn't think about it before, if you would decide to do it the last few days, then you couldn't cut any more wood. So they had to think about it a time before. And that's why the nedavah of the wood of this day, of the twentieth of Av, and the same would probably apply to those that gave wood afterwards, in the twentieth of Elul, etc., etc., has a special chashivut which those that gave the wood before didn't have. Because those that gave the wood before, they gave it at a time when you still could get it, you could go out and cut it till then, and they didn't have to prepare it a long time before because they could prepare it in the time when they're giving, because that day you still could cut wood. But these families who gave the wood on the twentieth of Av, and the same with those that gave later, so two things: first of all, as we said before, they gave it at the time when it was more precious because you couldn't get it, and second of all, they had to think about it a long time before to prepare enough wood that they should have it ready on the twentieth of Av. And more than that, what did they do with the wood? The wood itself was not the korban. They brought it to the Beit Hamikdash and it was used on the מערכה, on the mizbeach when they were מקריב קרבנות. The קרבן itself that they burnt on this wood was not their קרבן. And lav davka that it was

only for the קרבן ציבור, because the קרבן ציבור, the public קרבן, every eid has a chelek in it, has a part in it. So these people had a part in the קרבן ציבור. But this wood was not only used for the קרבן ציבור, it was used for all the קרבנות. So it was used for קרבנות of other eiden. So this shows what they did. They prepared wood before, they gave it away at a time when you couldn't get it, for what? So that other eiden should have the wood to be able to bring their קרבנות. And even more than that, amongst the קרבנות that other eiden brought were חטאות and אשמות. These are קרבנות brought by בעלי עבירה, people who did עבירות, and they brought it as a kaparah for their עבירות. And still these families brought the wood at a time when you couldn't get it and prepared it before so that people who did עבירות should be able to get a kaparah for their עבירות. And even more than that, when they gave it, they didn't give it because there was no choice, they gave it besimchah. As we said that this day became their Yom Tov, they made a יום שמחה out of it, it was a special Yom Tov for the family, so they did all this besimchah. So this is a very, very special thing. And therefore there's a machloket between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yosi, which זכות was it that brought about that these people should do this, should care so much about other people and give away a precious thing and prepare it before, even for such people who are בעלי עבירה who have to get a kaparah for their עבירות through a חטאת or an אשם? And the machloket is whether it was the זכות of David HaMelech or the זכות of Yoav ben Tzeruyah.

What is the difference between David HaMelech and Yoav ben Tzeruyah? So the Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף מ\"ט עמוד א', אלמלא דוד לא עשה יואב מלחמה. If not for דוד, יואב would never have won the war. ואלמלא יואב לא עסק דוד בתורה. And if not for יואב, דוד wouldn't have been able to learn Torah. Yoav was the general, so he went out to fight the war, David stayed home and learned Torah. Now, if Yoav wouldn't go fight the war, then David Hamelech couldn't sit peacefully and learn Torah. On the other hand, if David wouldn't sit and learn Torah, then Yoav would never have won the war, because he had to have the זכות of learning Torah in order to win the war. And the peshat is even deeper. Not only because there was a זכות of David learning Torah that Yoav won the war, but because David was able to learn Torah on account of Yoav, so Yoav had a חלק in David's learning, which means that when David learned Torah, part of the זכות was actually Yoav's. But at any event, it comes out that the main thing of David was learning Torah, the main thing of Yoav was to go out and to fight the battles, to fight the war. What is the difference actually between these two ענינים? The difference is like this: they both had mesirut nefesh. They both gave themselves up, they sacrificed their lives, they both had the proper bitul, the proper self-nullification to Hashem, but the difference was concerning which ענין they used their mesirut nefesh. David Hamelech used his mesirut nefesh in the ענין of learning Torah. He learned Torah with proper mesirut nefesh, as we see it from what the Gemara says in סנהדרין דף צ\"ג עמוד ב', that when the pasuk says concerning דוד וה' עמו, so the גמרא says it means שהלכה כמותו, the halacha was like him. Why was the halacha like David HaMelech? Because David learned Torah in a way that he felt in his learning the נותן התורה. He was completely batal, given over to the נותן התורה, to the one that gave the Torah, which is Hashem, so he felt the proper bitul when he learned Torah. And therefore he was zocheh that the halacha was always like David. As it says in Sefer HaBahir, that דוד היה מחבר תורה שלמעלה בהקדוש ברוך הוא, that David connected, combined the Torah with Hashem, which means he learned Torah in such a way, not only that he felt that this was a good chochmah, but he felt in the Torah the kedushah of Torah. So David used his mesirut nefesh for learning Torah. The bitul and the mesirut nefesh of Yoav expressed itself in the fact that he went out to fight with the enemies of the Bnei Yisrael. He went out to change the world, so to speak, he went out to get rid of those that want to stop the Yidden from doing what they're supposed to do. So he went out into the world to make the world recognize the truth, to fight away to get rid of the enemies, and the world should see the truth. So his bitul was in the inyan of bringing kedushah into the world. So it comes out that

David HaMelech's main avodah was in the inyan of learning Torah, staying in his own place and learning Torah and becoming דבוק to Hashem, and Yoav's inyan was going out into the world and bringing kedushah into the world, and anything that's against kedushah to get rid of it. The truth is that because there is התכללות, there is a combination of all kinds of עבודות, therefore each one helped out the other. We don't say that David only did that and Yoav only did that. Because David learned Torah, he had a chelek in this avodah of Yoav. Because Yoav fought the war and made it possible for David to learn Torah, he had a chelek in David's Torah. But specifically, each one had his avodah. David's avodah was to stay in his own place, to be isolated from the world, and to reach higher מדרגות through דבקות in Hashem through learning Torah. And Yoav's avodah was to go out into the world and see that the world should be a proper place. And that is the machloket in the Gemara. Since this inyan of bringing the נדבה of the wood on the twentieth of Av was a very special thing, as we explained before, there must have been a very special zechut that they had in order to do this. And the machloket is, which of these two זכותים is greater? One opinion is that the zechut of David is greater, which means the zechut of becoming דבוק בהשם and going higher and higher in his דבקות בהשם, that is the greater avodah and that is the zechut that brought about that they should bring this נדבה. And the other opinion is that it was the zechut of Yoav that did it, because this idea of going out and seeing that the world is a proper place, that is a greater זכות. And

it's interesting that the מחלוקת here is between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yosi. We know Rabbi Meir is connected to the word אור, which means light. And the Gemara says also his name was Rav Nahorai. נהורא also means light. When there is light, you could see clearly. There is no העלם, there is no cover. And that's why it says in Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit Rabbah פרשה כ' י\"ב, that in תורתו של רבי מאיר they found that the word כתנות אור was written with an אלף. When it says that Hashem made כתנות עור to Adam and Chava, so עור is with an עין, עור means skin, but in his ספר תורה, it said אור with an אלף, because by him everything was אור, everything was light, everything shined, he saw the truth in everything, everything was clear. There was no העלם. Like this we know, the world covers up on the truth. The world, which is עולם, comes from the word העלם. העלם means cover up. The truth is that there is nothing but Hashem, the world covers up on that. Rabbi Meir was such a high מדרגה that by him everything was אור, everything shined, everything was light, everything was clear. Rabbi Yosi, we know that it says in Zohar, the third חלק, דף רכ\"ג עמוד א', and it's also מרומז in the Gemara, Sanhedrin דף נ\"ו עמוד א', the word Yosi is בגימטריא אלקים. The word Yosi has the same גימטריא, the same numerical value as the שם אלקים, the name of Hashem, אלקים. And we know that Elokim represents Hashem the way he is hidden in the world, in the nature. And that's why Elokim is also בגימטריא הטבע, which is the nature. So Rabbi Yosi, which is גימטריא אלקים and בגימטריא הטבע, he represents the concept of kedushah the way it affects the world, which is מעלים ומסתיר, which covers up on the truth of Hashem. And that's why Rabbi Meir says that whose zechut was it? It was the zechut of David HaMelech. Because in the level of Rabbi Meir, there was no need to bring kedushah into the olam, into the world, and see that the world should be a proper place, because to him lechatchilah there was no העלם והסתר, there was no cover up. To him everything was light. So to him the main thing is to become davek in Hashem and go higher and higher into דבקות בהשם. There is no inyan of fighting with enemies because the way he looked at it, there were no enemies, there was nothing else, everything was clear. Everything was or. So therefore, he says that the main zechut is the zechut of David HaMelech, and therefore he says, what zechut caused them to bring the nedavah of the etzim on the twentieth of אב, which is a great thing, was the zechut of David HaMelech. But Rabbi Yosi, as his inyan, his name represents the fact that you have to bring kedushah into the olam, he said that which avodah is greater? The avodah of Yoav, which was working with the world to see that the world is a proper place. That's why he says, whose zechut brought about that they should bring the nedavah on the twentieth of אב, was the zechut of Yoav ben Tzeruya. Now, when the day comes around, the twentieth of אב comes around, and everything that used to happen before is נזכרים ונעשים, happens again, so we have to take a lesson the twentieth of אב of what took place on the twentieth of אב then. So

what is the lesson we're supposed to take here? That the lesson is that when a person has something that could help somebody else, and that other person cannot get it anywhere in the world he can't get, but you have it, you have to be ready to give it to him. This is as how far אהבת ישראל is supposed to go, to give away something which is very precious, and something that no one else could get, still give it away to help somebody else. And even if that other person is a person that was nichshal in a chet, a person that did an aveirah, nevertheless you have to help him. And even if you're not going to gain anything out of it, like in this case it was the korban of other Yidden, and he had no chelek in it, nevertheless they were ready to give it away, and that's the lesson we're supposed to take. And you're supposed to do it with simchah, you're supposed to do it with joy, not just do it because you have no choice, blit breirah. You're supposed to do it with simchah like they did it, that they did it besimchah, they made a Yom Tov out of it. And in order to be able to do this, you have to have the mesirut nefesh, just like we said here, that the zechut that they were able to do this was because of the mesirut nefesh of their great-great-grandparents. Whether it was the mesirut nefesh of David Hamelech for learning Torah and ing higher and higher in his deveikut to Hashem, or it was the mesirat nefesh of Yoav who went out into the world to see that the world should be a proper place. But it came through mesirat nefesh, and through the mesirat nefesh of the grandparents, the grandchildren had the zechut of having Ahavat Yisrael in such a strong way. So if we want our children and great-grandchildren to have Ahavat Yisrael in such a way, we have to show our mesirat nefesh in serving Hashem. And if we have that mesirat nefesh, we will have the proper Ahavat Yisrael and our great-grandchildren will have the proper Ahavat Yisrael, especially when we're coming not far away from Tishah beAv, when the חורבן בית המקדש came because of שנאת חנם, because there was hatred among the Yidden. So if we have Ahavat Yisrael, this will bring to the rebuilding of the third בית המקדש.

Concerning the month of Elul, it says in Mishnat Chasidim 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: or א׳ ב׳, or ב׳ א׳. If you have three letters, then you could 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 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 to 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 מקור 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 הלכות תשובה, פרק ג׳, הלכה ד׳, that אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב, that even though blowing shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a din from the תורה, רמז יש בו, there is a remez in it, there's a hint in it. כלומר, and he says what is the hint: עורו ישינים 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 והיטיבו דרכיכם, better your ways, and he goes on and on. Then he says, מפני ענין זה, 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 במצות, and doing מצות, מראש השנה ועד יום הכפורים, from Rosh Hashanah till יום כיפור, 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 מעשים טובים ולעסוק במצות. He mentions that during the עשרת ימי תשובה you should add in מעשים טובים and לעסוק במצות. Now, tzedakah is one of the מעשים טובים, 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 מעשים טובים 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 ten days are the hachana, 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 ten days are the hachana, 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 hachana, a preparation to the כתיבה, which is the beginning of the din 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 ראש חודש אלול till after Yom Kippur, is one hemshech, is one continuation. It's like one chafza 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 י's, that's 40. What is the ענין of 40? So he says these are the 40 days from ראש חודש אלול till Yom Kippur. And he says כי באלו מ׳ ימי התשובה, because during these 40 days of teshuvah, מקובלת, the teshuvah is accepted more. And דודי קרוב לקבל תשובה מאהבה. Dodi, which is the beloved one, which is Hashem, is close to every single yid to accept teshuvah me'ahavah. So we see that all 40 days are one unit. And therefore, whatever we find concerning the last ten days, the ten 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 מעשים טובים 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 מרבה 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, tzedakah is a mitzvah like all other mitzvot, so why taka is it very important to add in the mitzvah of צדקה דווקא in the month of Elul? Now

one reason is a very simple reason: because tzedakah is מכפר for a חטא. We know tzedakah is the way to get forgiven for the עבירה. As the פסוק says in דניאל קפיטל ד׳ פסוק כ״ד, ״דחטאך בצדקה פרוק״, that you could redeem your חטא through tzedakah. And this, by the way, is the reason why the Rambam says that the מנהג is leharbot bitzedakah, to give a lot of tzedakah, and he doesn't give a שיעור. לכאורה, normally, we know that there is a שיעור, 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 פסקנ'ס at the end of Hilchot Erchin veCharamin. 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 is 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 chata'im, which is נוגע to his nefesh, there is no limit. And that's why the Rambam says להרבות. 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 באמת, 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, b'zeroa, by hand, by force. He must give it to them. Which means like this: כל העולם, the whole world, gets their needs from Hashem only in a form of tzedakah and chesed from Hashem, it's because of the kindness of Hashem, but it's not because of the זכות 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 for them. But the tzaddikim 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. 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 lichorah it comes out that some people have to get it tzedakah. The tzaddikim 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 a Yid is waiting for Hashem to give him a ketivah vechatimah tovah, and the way Hashem will give it to him will only be in a form of tzedakah because he doesn't deserve it. So we know Hashem does middah keneged 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 lichorah, this is only concerning those people who get supported by Hashem through tzedakah. What about those tzaddikim that we said that ניזונים בזרוע? They get it בזכות שבידם, with their own zechut, because they deserve it. Lichorah, for them it's not important bedavka to do the mitzvah of tzedakah. But the emet is not so. Even for them it's important to give tzedakah, because this itself, that their zechuyot makes them deserve that Hashem should support them, is also emet a tzedakah. Because sof kol sof, what kind of comparison does מעשי בני אדם, the actions of people, have לגבי השם, that because they do what they do, Hashem should give them? There's a pasuk that says, in Iyov, קפיטל ל\"ה, פסוק ז', \"אם צדקת, מה תתן לו?\" If you do tzedakah, which means if you are 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, lichorah what kind of תפיסת מקום, what kind of chashivut, 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 what an ant on the floor does would affect him, 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 lichorah, what kind of effect can the action of a person have? And furthermore, even if we're 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 Iyov, קפיטל מ\"א, פסוק ג', \"מי הקדימני ואשלם\", that emet all the actions of a person are also done through the help of Hashem. So therefore, emet, 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 of what Rashi says in the beginning of Parashat Va'etchanan, that אף על פי שיש להם לצדיקים לתלות במעשיהם הטובים, that even though the tzadikim could be toleh and ask from Hashem based on their good deeds, אין מבקשים מאת המקום אלא מתנת חנם. Nevertheless, they ask from Hashem only a מתנת חנם, a matana, a present for free. And the peshat is, because they realize that even though they have ma'asim 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 מתנת חנם. And therefore, even these tzadikim also have to come on to 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 in all מצוות, 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 on to 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, שנהגו כולם לקום בלילה בעשרה ימים אלו, that the מנהג of everybody is to get up at night during these ten days, ולהתפלל בבתי כנסיות, and to daven in the shuls, בדברי תחנונים, in words of begging, ובכיבושין עד שיאור היום, till the morning. So he mentions specifically the ענין of davening, 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 זכותים as you have, it's still not enough, because we never could say that you deserve it. And therefore, you always have to come on to דברי תחנונים. And that's why the מנהג during עשרת ימי תשובה is to add in the דברי תחנונים. And as we said before, this 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 ענין of Rosh Hashanah. Because the חז״ל say in Rosh Hashanah ט״ז עמוד א׳ that השם says, אמרו לפני בראש השנה מלכיות, זכרונות, ושופרות, מלכיות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, that Hashem wants us to make 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 מי