Anyway the topic is the mitzvah of tzedakah. On the mitzvah of tzedakah we have many halachot, many laws concerning the mitzvah of tzedakah. In Shulchan Aruch we have a whole section called הלכות צדקה, the laws of tzedakah, the laws of charity. In the Rambam we have a whole section which talks about the laws of tzedakah. The title actually is not הלכות צדקה, in the Rambam it is part of a more general title which is called הלכות מתנות עניים, the laws of the presents that you give to the poor people, because there are more things that you give to the poor people that really nowadays we don't do it, but when the Yidden had the fields in Eretz Yisrael there was מעשר עני, a certain type of ma'aser you would give, etc. etc. Now we have tzedakah, but the Rambam includes it in הלכות מתנות עניים, but does have a few chapters that deal with the mitzvah of tzedakah. So there are many halachot in the mitzvah of tzedakah. Usually at these classes we don't go through the halachot of the subject or the mitzvah that we discuss. What we usually do is do talk, mention, touch upon some of the halachot, but that's not our idea of going through the halachot, this is not a halachah class. What we try to do is discuss the topic more from a deeper perspective, looking more at the reasons behind it, the accomplishments of the mitzvah, and mainly the way it is explained in Chassidut, in the Chasidic sefarim, the way it explains that specific mitzvah. And as you understand yourself without me even saying, basically the way the Rebbe explains it in the different sefarim, in the sichot, in the ma'amarim, the letters, and that's where I really get my information, because in the Rebbe's sichot you have everything, and any topic you want, you just have to know where to look and you'll find everything and it's all right there. So really the basic idea of explaining of discussing these topics is not to get through the halachot, even though we might touch upon a few halachot, but to get through the deeper meaning behind it. The reason it's important to get into a deeper meaning of any mitzvah, including the mitzvah of tzedakah, is that when you know what the real, deeper meaning is of a mitzvah and you know what it accomplishes, then it gives you a greater incentive to do the mitzvah. You will do the mitzvah with greater enthusiasm, you will do the mitzvah with greater התלהבות, you will do the mitzvah with greater hiddur, with greater kavana, greater intention, the proper intention, you will do the mitzvah lishmah, you will do the mitzvah for its real reason as you're supposed to. That's the reason why we try to understand the deeper inyanim that are behind the mitzvot. And the same is with this topic, mitzvah of tzedakah, trying to understand a little bit deeper what is behind the mitzvah of tzedakah and what we accomplish with the mitzvah of tzedakah. The truth is that specifically the mitzvah of tzedakah, really the need to understand a deeper meaning in order to do the mitzvah with greater kavana is not so important, less important than by other mitzvot, because by other mitzvot we know that it is important to do the mitzvah with the proper intentions. As a matter of fact, there are certain mitzvot that the halacha is, the law is, that if you don't have the proper kavana you didn't even fulfill the mitzvah. In some mitzvot we have the rule of מצוות צריכות כוונה, that the mitzvot need a kavana, and if you don't have a kavana, the certain kavana that requires, that's required for that mitzvah, you actually did not fulfill the mitzvah. Some mitzvot, even if you didn't have the kavana you still have fulfilled the mitzvah, but nevertheless kavana plays an important role. Even in those mitzvot where the kavana is not me'akev, not me'akev means it doesn't hold back the fulfillment, but it plays an important role. While the mitzvah of tzedakah it's not like that. The mitzvah of tzedakah the kavana is not, and doesn't play an important role. A person fulfills the mitzvah of tzedakah without having the kavanah of giving tzedakah. There is Rashi brings a famous Midrash where it says that if a person was walking in the street and dropped a sela, dropped a coin, dropped a dollar, and a poor man found it and picked it up and kept it, and he was allowed to keep it, obviously the case is a halachah that it's a type of lost object that you're allowed to keep, and the ani, the poor man kept it and he used it to buy food, the one that lost it has fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah. And here he did not have kavanah to give tzedakah, as a matter of fact, he was upset that he lost the money, he just couldn't do anything about it. Nevertheless, he has fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah. Then there is a famous statement that the Chazal say, הנותן פרוטה לעני על מנת שיחיה בני או על מנת שאהיה בן עולם הבא הרי זה צדיק גמור, and I'll translate: if someone gives money, a perutah, coin to a poor man, and he says I'm doing it because I want that in reward of what I did is my son should live, or I want to become a בן עולם הבא, I want to get עולם הבא, I want to get the World to Come, הרי זה צדיק גמור. This person in this mitzvah is a complete tzadik. There is nothing wrong with what he did. It sounds like it's a מצוה שלא לשמה, not for the proper reason, not for the right intentions. Nevertheless, the din is that he is a צדיק גמור. We find that by tzedakah there is a special saying that Chazal say based on the pasuk: עשר תעשר. The simple peshat is: take off a tenth of the things that you have to give it to the Levi, the Kohen, whatever, to tzedakah. It says a double expression, עשר תעשר. So the simple meaning is: you shall surely take off maaser. But the Chazal say: עשר בשביל שתתעשר. What it really means is: aser, give maaser, give a tenth of your earnings to the poor, bishvil, in order that you should become rich, she'titasher. The Gemara דרשנ'ס the second word titasher from the word ashirut, richness. You are allowed to do it in order to become rich. Imagine, the Torah says lechatchilah: give tzedakah in order to become rich, because Hashem promised that if you give tzedakah you'll become rich. Actually, there's a pasuk that Hashem says: ובחנוני נא בזאת. You should could test Me, test Me, see if it will come true. Give tzedakah for the reason of becoming rich, and see if it will come true. So here we see that by tzedakah the kavanah is not really, really that important. We all know the famous peshat, or vort, that's said, and some attribute it to the Baal Shem Tov, that the Gemara says concerning korbanot, when you bring a sacrifice in the Beit HaMikdash, and there are all kinds of sacrifices: bigger sacrifices, smaller sacrifices, then there's a sacrifice of a minchah which is just flour and oil, very cheap. So the Gemara says: אחד המרבה ואחד הממעיט, makes no difference if you bring a lot, a big korban or a small קרבן, ובלבד שיכוין לבו לשמים, as long as your heart has the kavanah for Hashem. So the Baal Shem Tov said: there are two things where we say the opposite: אחד המכוין ואחד שאינו מכוין ובלבד שירבה. Whether you are mechaven, whether you have the proper intentions or you don't, the more you give the better it is. By korbanot makes no difference more or less as long as you have the kavanah, and by certain things it makes no difference if you give with kavanah or without, but the main thing is to give. And what are the two things? So one of them is he said for men to go to the mikveh. And the second thing is tzedakah. Makes no difference what kavanah you have, the main thing is that the poor man got his money. That's what tzedakah is. If a poor man, or an institution which is in the category of a poor man, needs the funds, and you gave the poor man or the institution its needs, you have fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah. That's the main thing that counts. In Yiddish there's the expression: men darf kenen ibertzeyln, that's all, it needs to be counted, if you give cash, that's what counts, your kavanah is not so important. So from here it comes out that really by tzedakah it's not that really important to have the right kavanah, and therefore, the whole idea of studying and learning and looking into the depth of the mitzvah of tzedakah is not so important like other mitzvot. True, but nevertheless, even by tzedakah, if you do it with the proper kavanah, it's better. First of all, if you know the meaning of tzedakah and what you accomplish with tzedakah, then you might give more. But besides that, it is even by tzedakah, where the main thing is that the poor man gets the money, if you do it with more kavanah, with more feeling, it's better. As long as long obviously as it doesn't take away from what tzedakah is supposed to accomplish. In other words, you shouldn't stand up and start thinking kavanot, in the meantime, the poor man, who knows what's going to happen to him? The poor man is waiting for his money and you're going to stand up and start thinking kavanot, and he might die in this in the meantime. That you shouldn't do. By the way, this is one of the reasons given why we don't make a mitzvah a bracha when we do the mitzvah of tzedakah. Every mitzvah requires a bracha before. So why don't we make a bracha before we do the mitzvah of tzedakah: אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו ליתן צדקה, whatever, a similar bracha? So there are a lot of reasons given. One of the reasons, for instance, is because any mitzvah that depends on someone else to take it, you can't make a bracha, because you might make the bracha and want to give him and he won't take it. There are other mitzvot similarly that we don't make a bracha because it depends on another person. But there's another reason, that you make a bracha, you start thinking the kavanot of the bracha, and the poor man is standing and he is hungry and he's waiting, who knows what could happen to him? So they said don't make a bracha. Just give it to him right away. The Rebbe once expressed himself, he said: if you're a big chasid and you're going to go to make a bracha, so the first thing you'll have to do is go to the mikveh before you do it, and then you're going to have to go put on your gartel, and you're going to have to go start thinking kavanot, who knows what's going to happen? So the chachamim said don't make a bracha and just give it to him, because the main thing is he gets it. So therefore, if the kavanah is going to minimize in the poor man getting his tzedakah, don't have kavanot. But if doesn't minimize, then it's worthwhile to understand the proper meaning behind the mitzvah of tzedakah, what we accomplish with tzedakah, what tzedakah is. So let's go into a little bit what the mitzvah of tzedakah is. Now, in the halacha aspect, or in the nigleh, the revealed part of the Torah, we find a lot about tzedakah. Actually, in Gemara, in Shulchan Aruch, in Rambam, we find a lot about צדקה. And the Chazal describe the mitzvah of tzedakah and explain what it accomplished, how great it is.

Just to quote a few small statements, a statement in the Gemara in Bava Batra that שקולה צדקה כנגד כל המצות. Tzedakah is as important as all the mitzvot put together. Imagine, as all the mitzvot put together. Then there's another statement in Gemara that גדולה צדקה שמקרבת את הגאולה. Tzedakah is so great that it hastens the coming of Mashiach. We say that by some other mitzvot too, but but not all, but not not by so many. There are a few mitzvot that we stress specifically this mitzvah will bring Mashiach. This is a very important mitzvah. In Yerushalmi the mitzvah of tzedakah, whenever it talks about tzedakah, it doesn't even use the word tzedakah. It uses the word mitzvah. Whenever it says the word mitzvah without any explanation which mitzvah, it means tzedakah. In other words, tzedakah is the mitzvah in Yerushalmi. But that's in the Gemara, in the nigleh. In Chasidut you find further explanations in what is accomplished through the mitzvah of tzedakah. We find a pasuk where it says, actually the pasuk speaks about Korach. It's a pasuk in Ekev, but the pasuk speaks about Korach, and it says that Korach and Datan and Aviram were swallowed into the ground. So it says, who was swallowed? They, their household, then it says, ואת כל היקום אשר ברגליהם, and all the standing up, the things that stand up on their feet. It means all the things that stand them up, that make them stand upright. What does that mean? What else is there? So Rashi says, what's מעמידו על רגליו? זה ממונו של אדם, that's the money. The money of a person is מעמידו על רגליו, sets him up on his feet. That was the whole person stands on money. There is even a joke that the olam says, Pirkei Avot it says על שלשה דברים העולם עומד, the world stands on three things, and it says על תורה, עבודה, וגמילות חסדים, so some say the three things the world stands are money, money, and money. Three things. People think so. But something in the eyes of a person, money is very, very important. That's something the Gemara says, and Rashi brings it, מעמידו על רגליו, makes a person stand on his feet. So much so is money important to a person that the Gemara says like this, we say in קריאת שמע, ואהבת את ה׳ אלקיך, you shall love Hashem your G-d, בכל לבבך, with all your heart, ובכל נפשך, with all your soul, ובכל מאדך. What does ובכל מאדך mean? So we're used to translating ובכל מאדך means with all your might. All kinds of translations. You know what the Gemara says ובכל מאדך means? With all your money. בכל ממונך, you shall love Hashem with all all your money. Then the Gemara asks the question, if it already says you shall love Hashem with all your life, with all your soul, then obviously certainly you should love Hashem with all your money. Why would it mention all your money if it already mentions your life? So the Gemara says that there are some people that their money is more important than than their life. And therefore, the the פסוק has to tell us you shall love Hashem with all your life, and then it says to those people that their money is more important, you shall love Hashem with all your money because money is a very, very important matter to a person. That's the nature of a person. So the money is basically, as far as a person is concerned, part of him. This is him. When a person takes money and gives it away to another person because Hashem said so, really he is giving away part of himself. And that's one of the big ma'alot of tzedakah, that you give away part of yourself, of your whole self. Money is not part of your hand or part of your feet, part of you! So you're giving away part of yourself. In Tanya it explains like this, in Tanya it says, why is tzedakah more important, perek ל״ז, why is tzedakah more important than all other mitzvot? So he says, any other mitzvah that you do, you do it with a certain part of your body. And that part of your your body is involved in the mitzvah. That part of your body gets close to Hashem because you're doing a mitzvah. When you give tzedakah, on one hand you're using your hand. You take the coin and you're giving it, so your hand is involved in the mitzvah, but it's more than that, he says. It's not your hand or any other part of the body, it's your whole being. It's your whole nefesh, it's your whole life. And he says why, because money, he says, is something that a person works for with his life. When a person works, goes to work, and puts himself in, you put your whole self into what you do, and how did you earn the money, because you put your life in. And then you take the money that you earned by putting your nefesh into it, and you're giving it away. So you're giving away your nefesh, you're giving away part of yourself. Besides that he says, let's He won a lottery, or he inherited money, could also be. Still he says, money is something that a person could use to buy his life. You buy food with money. יכול לקנות חיי נפשו, money is something you could buy your life with. And you're taking that which is important for your life, and you're giving it away, so that is giving away yourself. So giving away tzedakah gives is giving away part of your own nefesh, part of your life. And from here it comes out two points. Number one, this shows how great tzedakah is. That when you give tzedakah, you're involving every part of yourself, so your whole nefesh is involved in the mitzvah. That means you're purifying your whole nefesh. But besides that, this shows something else: how hard it is to give tzedakah. Since this is part of yourself, which person wants to give away part of himself? You could give away something besides, but part of yourself, and therefore it's very hard. And therefore, if a person does give tzedakah, he actually breaks his nature. He breaks his yetzer hara. He performs what we call in חסידות אתכפיא. He's bending his yetzer hara more than by any other mitzvot. Everything, if you look from the side, is hard. Any mitzvah you do, any obligation you have, could be a burden and it's hard. But since this is very much part of you, and you you do that, you have to break your nature, you have to bend your yetzer hara. So here there's another aspect in tzedakah, the maalah of tzedakah. We know from the Torah, from חסידות certainly, but even not from חסידות, how important it is by Hashem a Yid break his yetzer hara. Now, breaking yetzer hara doesn't only mean not to do something bad, not to do something evil, wicked. Just to break your yetzer hara to do something that you don't really want to do, and you're bending yourself and doing it for the sake of Hashem, that by Hashem is very, very important. It says in the זוהר, כד אתכפיא סטרא אחרא, when you bend the סטרא אחרא, and when you bend your nature, meaning something that gashmiyut and nature, and you bend it, אסתלק יקרא דקודשא בריך הוא, the kavod of Hashem is elevated. Actually, it's in the maamar of באתי לגני, which close to יו״ד שבט now, that maamar, he brings it. So when you do the mitzvah of tzedakah, it has this aspect, more than other mitzvot, of bending your yetzer hara, because it's something that's very hard to do. Giving away your money, which is you, part of you, you're giving it away, it's really bending the yetzer hara. And that's why it says in חסידות, that one of the qualities of the mitzvah of tzedakah is not so much that you give it Not I'm not not so much, in addition to the fact that you give it to somebody else and he has the money, there is an aspect of you bending the yetzer hara. And therefore it says, when does a person really fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah? When it hurts. If you give tzedakah and it's very easy because you're a millionaire, and you give a thousand dollars, it doesn't you don't feel it, then you really, really didn't accomplish what really mitzvat tzedakah is supposed to accomplish. But if you bend, you give more than you could, that that bends the yetzer hara. Because one of the aspects of the mitzvah of tzedakah is the idea of bending one's one's yetzer hara. This is the reason why it says in פרקי אבות, הכל לפי רוב המעשה, which means everything depends on the multiplication or the multi whatever of doing. Which means the Rambam explains, it means that the more times you give tzedakah, the better it is. He says even if you'll give the same amount, but if you give it in more times, it's better. You could give the same $100. If you give it once or you give it in 10 times or in 100 times, it's better. And the reason behind it is, because every time you give, you have to break your yetzer hara, you have to bend yourself, something that you don't want to do. If you give it at once, then you've given it, so you bent your yetzer hara once. But like this, every time. I use a mashal for this. You must have heard it from me before, but I use a mashal of a joke I once heard, a Yiddishe joke, that there was once this guest that came to someone's house for Shabbos. The host was a very simple, peasant, a grober person, not an eidele person, and the guest was a very, very fine, eidele person. Came Shabbos at the table, they served challah, as we do all on Shabbos. The host took the challah, gave a big cut, cut off a שטיק חלה, a big piece of challah, and used that for the meal. And he ate, kept kept eating from it. The other person, the guest, who was a very, very fine, eidele person, cut himself off a small slice, and he ate it. Then he needed some more challah, he cut off another small slice, and he ate it. And the host was sitting there and getting nervous, and then finally he says to him, \"What are you doing? Why don't you just take, cut off a piece of challah, and eat it? Why you keep on cutting small pieces?\" So he says to him, \"What difference does it make? I'm going to eat the same amount anyway. You're worried that I'm going to take away your challah? If I would cut off a big piece, I would eat less, nu, I could understand. I will eat the same amount anyway. What do you care if I cut off a big piece at once or I cut off little slices?\" So he says, \"You don't understand. Yet, יעדער מאל וואס דו וויסט עס שניידן איז נאך א שניט אין הארץ. Every time you cut it, is another cut in the heart. Cut once, and that's it! The challah is the same, but why do you keep on getting me nervous? You're cutting my heart every time. The same thing every time that we have to give tzedakah again, איז נאך א שטאך אין הארץ. It's another time of אתכפיא סטרא אחרא, it's another time when we're bending our physical nature which is not kedushah. So that's part of the mitzvah of tzedakah. So the quality of the mitzvah of tzedakah is giving away yourself, that's one maalah, that it's so important that it's giving away a chunk of yourself, not of a specific part of yourself, but a chunk of yourself. Plus, because of that, it is very hard and you have to bend yourself, and therefore that is a special quality to the mitzvah of tzedakah, the idea of אתכפיא, of bending yourself and being, using the term of Chassidus, being mevatel yourself, nullifying yourself to the cause, which is to Hashem.

There is another nekudah that Chassidus explains, why in tzedakah there is a concept of bitul, of a person having to be mevatel himself and not having ga'avah, not having arrogance, not feeling of yourself as a big metziut, as a big shot, because in order to give tzedakah you have to be batel. And I'll explain why. There is a Gemara, and from the Gemara we'll see it, the Gemara says that once this guy called Turnus Rufus haRasha, was a famous apikorus, a goy, said to Rabbi Akiva, \"You people are going against your own God.\" \"How?\" Said, \"You guys give tzedakah to the poor, right? Well, if this man is poor, obviously Hashem doesn't want him to have money. You believe everything comes from God, so Hashem didn't give him, He doesn't want him to have, and you go ahead and you give him. So you're going against Hashem's will.\" And he gave him a mashal. He says to him, \"For instance, you had a king and there was somebody the king was a there was a servant that the king was angry at, and he put him into jail and gave an order that no one should feed him. And somebody, a friend of the guy, came quietly and fed him, and the king found out about it. You think the king will be happy or upset? Sure he'll be upset. You went against his orders. It's exactly what you're doing. He ordered that he shouldn't have, if He didn't give him, He ordered he shouldn't have, and you're going behind Hashem's back and you're giving him. Hashem is upset.\" So he said Rabbi Akiva said to him, \"I'll tell you. You made a very good comparison, with one mistake. This is a good mashal concerning an עבד, a servant, a slave. I'll give you a similar mashal: If the king was angry at his son, and put his son in jail and gave an order that no one should feed him, and a friend of that son went quietly behind the king's back and quietly fed him, and the king found out, do you think he'll be happy or unhappy?\" Says, \"Well, in that case I think he'll be happy.\" Says, \"That's exactly. We are children to Hashem and Hashem is happy.\" This is the Gemara. Now, this ta'anah that Turnus Rufus had could fall into anybody's mind. Anybody could think this idea, \"If that person would deserve it, Hashem would give him. Hashem is just, and Hashem would give him. Hashem did not give him, obviously he doesn't deserve it. If he doesn't deserve it, then why should I give him?\" So when it comes to give tzedakah, there is a question that comes to a person's mind, \"Why should I give him? I probably shouldn't.\" But when could such an idea fall into one's mind? If a person is a yesh, holds himself for a metziut, he is a baal ga'avah, then you could think that. Why? Then you make a cheshbon like this: \"I did have, I do have the money. Why do I have the money? Because I deserve it! If I deserve it, I got. He didn't get, obviously he doesn't deserve it.\" But if a person is batel, he thinks to himself, \"I don't deserve it either. If I don't deserve it and I got, why shouldn't I give him?\" So in order to give a person tzedakah, you have to be batel, because if you're not batel you wouldn't give him. Because you could make the cheshbon that, \"Only if you deserve, well, all right, the best proof is I got because I'm so great, I deserve.\" But if a person thinks to himself, \"I don't deserve it either, because I know I'm not great,\" so then it brings to the thing then, \"Why should I get it? I don't deserve, why shouldn't he get it?\" And then you will give tzedakah. And not only that, you look at it this way, \"If I don't deserve it and I still got it, obviously it is because Hashem looks at me as His child, not as His servant. A servant who doesn't deserve you don't give. A child who doesn't deserve you give anyway. So if Hashem gave me, obviously we're considered Hashem's children. Now, if we're Hashem's children, then the mashal of Rabbi Akiva fits, then that person is also a child, and I should give him even if he doesn't deserve.\" So in order to give tzedakah, you have to have the feeling of bitul. So just in short, we just said you have to the mitzvah of tzedakah itself is when you have אתכפיא, when you bend your yetzer hara, that's the way to give it, plus you have to have bitul, because otherwise you might come with a cheshbon not to give. So tzedakah, the mitzvah of tzedakah, one of the qualities behind the mitzvah of tzedakah is a person's bitul to Hashem, a person's bending his yetzer hara, bending his gaavah, bending himself. for the sake of Hashem. Now why would a person do that? Why would a person bend himself? When you bend yourself to Hashem, what would be the reason behind this person, we say have an אתכפיא, doing this אתכפיא and bending himself and being mevatel himself? It stems from the emunah. Because we have emunah and trust that the money that we have is really not ours. Because we know, I almost slipped, I almost said we believe. We know that the money that we make is not from ourselves, it's from Hashem. If I would feel that the money that I make, I earned it, as the pasuk uses the term כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה, my own koach gave me this, made me have these riches, this money, then really maybe I shouldn't give him. I worked for it, I got it, and then why should I give him? Why should I bend myself and give him? But if I know the truth that הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל as the pasuk, that He, Hashem, gave us the koach to get what we have. So if that's Hashem, it's not my money anyway. And if Hashem gave me money, gave me a mitzvah of tzedakah, obviously the money that I have is really not mine. Really the money that I have is His to begin with. Hashem wants me to give. So I have to look at it this way, the money is not even mine to begin with, because I didn't make it. Hashem gave it to me. Imagine if someone gives you some money, someone from the outside gives you some money and says, \"I give you some money and I want you to give some to him.\" How would you look at it? So, I know lechatchilah, part of it is mine, part of it is his. He gave it to me with the condition to give part of it to him. Someone comes over to you and says, \"Here's $100 and $10 please give to him.\" So, is there any question that I could keep all the 100? He gave me lechatchilah, 90 for myself and 10 for him. The same thing here. Hashem gave me the money, and gave me a mitzvah of tzedakah, then it goes together, and I know lechatchilah that this is not my money, this is a פקדון. Hashem let me hold it for him. Hashem trusted me obviously, trusted me that I will do it. This is the reason the Gemara says, רבי מכבד עשירים. Rebbe would give respect to the rich people. Now nowadays, it's not a peleh, you know, a lot of people do that. They give extra special honor to rich people, and you know, chane'fet zich and they go to rich people. Rebbe, we're talking about the Rebbe, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi. Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, Rebbe, besides being the צדיק הדור and the greatest person we can imagine, there's nobody that you can compare, רבי, מלכות בית דוד, נשיא. Rebbe was very rich. He was the richest person in his time. The richest person in the world probably, even in his time. He didn't care. He had enough, he didn't need to play politics and chane'fe zich and then appease to a rich person. Why did he give kavod to the rich people? There are different explanations. One of the explanations is, if a person is rich, obviously Hashem expects him to give more tzedakah. That means Hashem gave him more money as a pikadon, as a deposit that he should hold for others. That means Hashem trusted him. A person who is not so rich, Hashem didn't give him so much to hold for somebody else. So Hashem didn't trust him that much. But this guy who has so much money, obviously Hashem trusted him a lot. So Rebbe said, \"If Hashem trusted him, then he must have a special neshamah, who knows, he's a special person. Hashem trusted him more than He trusted others, so he used to give him kavod.\" But the idea here is that if we have the emunah that it's from Hashem, then automatically we will bend ourselves and do the mitzvah and give it to the other person, which is the reason why, and the Rebbe explains it, something that's one of the most famous שיחות of the Rebbe, because it's from the שיחה the Rebbe said in the first years, is the explanation of the three famous words that the Rebbe says that in לשון קודש, in Hebrew, they're not the same as the way they translate them in English. And one of them is tzedakah. These famous three, teshuvah, tefillah, tzedakah. We say that in the מחזור, in the סליחות, in the מחזור I mean on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that three things, תשובה, תפלה וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזרה. Repentance, prayer, and charity tear, take away the bad decree. So the English translation of these three words, teshuvah, tefillah, tzedakah, is like I said: repentance, prayer, and charity. And the Rebbe said that each one of these three words are not translated right. In all languages, not only in English, all languages they don't translate them right. Teshuvah they translate repentance. Repentance means to go away from a situation. Teshuvah means the opposite. Teshuvah means to return. Go away means to go away, teshuvah means to come back. Because the way the non-Jewish world looks at teshuvah, teshuvah means that you behaved in a bad way, you have to leave it, start behaving fine. Torah says the opposite. Every Yid essentially is good. When you did something bad, you left your own self. What we want of you is, return! Come back to yourself! The same thing with tefillah. Tefillah is prayer. Prayer means, I'm standing here and I'm praying to Hashem. Hashem is up there, He connection. It's not that we going up and praying to Hashem, we're connecting to Hashem. And the same, does the same thing is with tzedakah. Tzedakah doesn't mean charity. Charity means giving somebody a present, giving somebody a donation, I'm giving away my thing I'm giving to him. Tzedakah is from the word tzedek. Tzedek means righteousness. That means it's right to do. If I'm giving my thing to somebody else, I don't have to do it, I'm giving him a present, extra. Righteous to do, what would be if I wouldn't give, anything wrong with it? Righteous means this is the right thing, you have to do it. This is right, this is tzedek. We always know the word צדק ויושר, צדק means the right thing. This is the right, why is it the right thing to give my thing away? Because it's to begin with, not mine, it's his. Then there is more to the mitzvah of tzedakah. There is a Midrash, Midrash Tanchuma, and I won't quote word for word, but I'll just say the way the Midrash says it, that if a person gives tzedakah to a poor man, later on Hashem says if chas v'shalom your child, that's the expression there, your child is sick and is almost dying, Hashem will say, \"You revived the life of the poor man who was leaving the body because he didn't have any food, because of that I will revive your child and I will give your child back his life.\" So the mitzvah of tzedakah has this quality of Hashem helping the person. Because Hashem works, we all know, middah k'neged middah, measure for measure. And if you do something good to somebody, then Hashem will do good to you. And the expression that the Midrash, the example I mean the Midrash picks, is an example that tzedakah accomplishes. Tzedakah accomplishes giving someone food, someone life, so Hashem says, \"I will give you life when you need it.\" Besides that, let's go a step further. Not only in a case like this, but in any case that you're davening to Hashem for anything that you need, tzedakah is a very big segulah in helping your tefillot be accepted by Hashem. I'll tell you why. When we ask Hashem for anything that we need, there are hardly any people that feel, that could feel, that they deserve it. Who could say to himself, \"I'm a tzadik, and I deserve Hashem to help me. Hashem should give me food, give me give me give me health, give me whatever I need\"? How could I ask Hashem? The Gemara says there are great great tzaddikim, very few, that could ask השם בזרוע, that could demand, \"Yes, Hashem, you have to give me because I deserve it.\" But most people can't. The Gemara, even those tzaddikim that could, don't do it. On Vaetchanan it says Moshe Rabbeinu davening to Hashem, so the word Vaetchanan, which means \"I davening,\" has the meaning of מתנת חנם, a present for free. Because Moshe, who could have demanded it, said, \"No, I'm asking please. I'm asking for a present, I don't deserve it.\" But he could have. And there are some tzaddikim that could, but most people can't. So what do we ask from Hashem? We ask from Hashem tzedakah. We tell Hashem we don't deserve it, but even if we don't deserve it, please give us. That's why we say in the סליחות, לך השם הצדקה ולנו בושת הפנים. \"You Hashem have tzedakah, and we have an embarrassed face.\" And we're embarrassed to turn to you and ask of you, but please give us tzedakah anyway. If we expect Hashem to give us tzedakah, even though we don't deserve, way to do it is if we show Hashem that we do the same thing. If we could give to somebody who doesn't deserve, and we say to Hashem, \"Look, we gave to somebody who doesn't deserve, so then middah k'neged middah, measure for measure, give me also, even though I don't deserve.\" And that's why we find there were many tzaddikim that when it came to tzedakah, they wouldn't even look who they're giving. They didn't care if it's possible that the person who asks for the tzedakah doesn't really deserve to get it. And sometimes there are people who are not so honest, and who knows if he deserves to get it? Sometimes the people are not such good people, that maybe you if you knew, you really wouldn't think you should give him tzedakah. So there were tzaddikim who didn't care, and they said for this reason: if Hashem will see that I give without looking, then Hashem will look at me the same way and give me without looking. It's an interesting pshat that they say, some attribute it to R'' Mendele of Kotzk, pshat in the Gemara. The Gemara in Bava Basra says that Yirmiyahu Hanavi, he had a lot of trouble with the people of Anatot. They threw him into a pit, they suspected him of thing, and they they did him all kinds of trouble. Later on, it says he davening to Hashem, and it says like this is what he said to Hashem, \"These people are bad people.\" And he said, the way the Gemara explains this prayer, that \"I ask of you, Hashem, that even if they will decide to give tzedakah, make sure that the people that they give the tzedakah to should be אנשים שאינם הגונים, people who are not worthy. And the simple pshat is he said, \"I don't want them to have any zechus.\" So even if they give tzedakah, I I wish that they don't have the zechus of the mitzvah. Let them give it to people who don't deserve it, so their mitzvah is not counted as a mitzvah. That's how the simple pshat is in the Gemara. So he asked a kushya, \"How can we say that Yirmiyahu Hanavi, such a great tzaddik as Yirmiyahu, would ask Hashem to punish these people and take away the zechus?\" He said, \"You don't understand. It's just the opposite. These people were terrible people, and he knew Hashem would punish them. And as much as he would try to defend them, davening to Hashem, Hashem would still punish them. So he said to Hashem, 'You know what? Make sure that they give tzedakah to people who don't deserve. So what's going to happen? Then You'll help them, even though they don't deserve.' So he was asking this for the benefit of these people, not against these people, not he was trying to punish them, the opposite. He was asking Hashem that these people should be helped, should have a zechus. And the only way they can have a zechus, because they don't deserve it, is if they do the same thing, they give to people who don't deserve. That's what Yirmiyahu Hanavi meant.\" So this is another quality of the mitzvah of tzedakah, that this makes Hashem look at a person and say, \"Well, you don't you give to someone who doesn't deserve, I'll give you even you don't deserve too.\" Because of all these great things that we find in tzedakah, as I said before, it's the etzem of the person, and you have to break your yetzer hara, and you have to do a bitul of yourself, and you have the emunah, so tzedakah brings out a person's bitul to Hashem, tzedakah brings out the emunah that a Yid has to Hashem. Because of that, it says that יותר ממה שבעל הבית עושה עם העני, העני עושה עם בעל הבית. When it comes to tzedakah, more than the rich man does to the poor man, the poor man does to the rich man. And the simple pshat is that when you give him tzedakah, you're doing him a favor, you're doing for him. So the Gemara says, \"No, you're doing him a favor, but he's doing you a bigger favor.\" What's the bigger favor? He is mezakeh you with a mitzvah. It's he that caused you to do a mitzvah. But what we're saying, it's much more. He caused you not only to do the mitzvah, to do this type of mitzvah, a mitzvah that has a connection to the etzem of the person, and the mitzvah that has a connection to the bitul of the person to Hashem, and to the emunah, and to all the things that we explained in the mitzvah of tzedakah. And that's why it says in the Gemara that צדקה תרומם גוי, meaning that if you give tzedakah, it picks up a person, it elevates the person. And the Alter Rebbe writes, he doesn't say this by too many things, that if a person gives tzedakah, he says, \"נעשה מוחו ולבו זכים אלף פעמים ככה.\" Your mind and your heart, your brain and your heart will become pure a thousand times as much. If you wouldn't have given the tzedakah, then you would be in a certain level. This makes you a thousand times as much. And the Tzemach Tzedek writes that when the Alter Rebbe wrote here a thousand times as much, it's not an exaggeration. It's not just an expression. He means kipshuto, a thousand times as much. Why? Because this has such a quality, this has such an effect on the person, besides what I said all the way in the beginning that the main thing is that the poor man gets the money and that's it, on the person who gives it, the effect it has is so great that it elevates the person to such a high madregah. And this is why it says that tzedakah is מקרב the geulah. It brings the geulah closer. Why the geulah closer? What's the geulah? When Mashiach will come, what's going to be? The revelation of Hashem, that's what it says, ונגלה כבוד ה', the revelation of Hashem. The bitul to Hashem will be to the highest level. The emunah in Hashem will be the highest level. In order to get to that madregah of Mashiach, you have to do things which help you reach that madregah. And one of the most important things are the mitzvah of tzedakah, because, as I explained before, has all these qualities, which are the qualities that will be exaggerated when Mashiach will come, but when we do it now, we hasten the coming of Mashiach.

Just to get a little bit practical, just down to earth, not to the Hilchos or anything, but I just want to read from the Rambam something that everyone knows, but it's good to read from inside. The Rambam says when it comes to tzedakah, he says there are eight levels of tzedakah, one higher than the other. And I just want to read from the inside just what are the different levels of tzedakah that the Rambam talks about. It's in the end of פרק י׳ of הלכות מתנות עניים. So it's just, he says like this: שמונה מעלות יש בצדקה, there are eight levels. The first one, he says, is you help a person get onto his feet. A person is poor, you don't just give him a donation. You help him, you give him a job, you help him start a business, you put him into a position that he will not have to ask for tzedakah anymore. That's the highest level. Then he says, the level under that is if you give tzedakah to a poor man, and you don't know who you gave it to, and he doesn't know who he got it from. The next level is that you know who you gave it, but he doesn't know who he took it. The level under that is if the poor man knows who he took it from, and the one that gave doesn't know who he gave it. Under that is that you give it knowing, but you don't wait for him to ask, you give it to him before he asks. The next level level is, this is going lower and lower, if you give him after he asks. A lower level than that is you give less than you should, but you give it to him with a smiling face. The one before that is you give it to him and you're not happy about it, you show him that you're upset. That's the lowest level. Because a person should give tzedakah b'sever panim yafot, besides giving the money, you should smile, you should make him feel good about it. Now, one more point I want to mention is that we know when it comes to tzedakah, everyone knows the term of ma'aser, ma'aser means a tenth. Now, it says a person should give ma'aser, to give a tenth of your earnings, and the Gemara says that chomesh, a fifth, which is 20%, is mitzvah min hamuvchar, is the best. What about giving more than a fifth? More than 20%? Now, from some places it seems that you're not allowed to. The Rambam in one place writes that any person who gives more than 20%, אין זה חסידות אלא שטות. It's not חסידות, but it's a stupidity. On the other hand, the Rambam himself, in a different place, writes that this דין that you shouldn't give, it says אל יבזבז, אל יבזבז, המבזבז אל יבזבז יותר מחומש, don't give more than a fifth, the Rambam says, is only when you give on your own. But if the poor man comes to ask for it, you can't say, \"Well, sorry, you should starve because I gave my fifth already, I gave my 20%, I don't have to give you.\" Then there is no limit. Besides that, I want to mention what it says in Tanya. In Tanya, and in the Ageret, in the first חלק, and in Ageret HaTeshuvah, it says that this whole דין of not giving more than 20% is if you're giving it just to fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah. But there's another aspect to tzedakah, and that is that tzedakah helps כפרת עוונות. It helps that Hashem forgives the עבירות. Just like if a person does an עבירה, does teshuvah, in the time of the בית המקדש, he had to bring a קרבן. We have no קרבנות now, we have no sacrifices. So really, it says you should fast. There's a certain amount of days you should fast for different עבירות. But nowadays that we can't fast, we're not strong enough to fast, so it says you should give tzedakah. So you give tzedakah not just for the mitzvah of tzedakah, but it should be to help the כפרת עוונות, to forgive the עבירות. They say once, one of the mashpi'im in Lubavitch when he taught Ageret HaTeshuvah, so there it says that עבירות, you have to fast after the aveirot. Then it says if you're not healthy enough, you're not strong enough, like nowadays, then you have to give tzedakah. So then he says like this: someone might ask, what happens if you're not healthy enough, so you can't fast? You're not rich enough, you can't give tzedakah, you don't have the money. So what do you do then? So he says, this guy has no choice but not to sin. What can you do? He has no breirah, you don't do any aveirot, because there's nothing you can do. But giving tzedakah helps kapparah. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe writes, when it comes to giving tzedakah for this reason, there is no limit. And he explains why. Just like a person could not say that his health, he has a problem with his health, and I'm only going to spend a certain amount of money, and he knows that he has to spend more money for a good doctor, and he say, \"No, I have my limit, I don't spend any more money.\" No person says that. The pasuk says: עור בעד עור וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו. You'll take the skin off yourself, as it says, and you'll give for your nefesh, for your life, for your health. So, but it says like this, if for your physical health you would give as much as you have, for your spiritual health, for your כפרת עוונות, to forgive aveirot you shouldn't do it? So therefore he says there is no question that you're allowed to give. And he says, ולכן the Alter Rebbe says, למעשה ולכן נהגו בדורות אחרונים, remember the expression, therefore the minhag is in our generations, להרבות בצדקה, to give more tzedakah, because we, unfortunately, have a lot of aveirot and we have a lot and a lot of aveirot to get rid of, so the more tzedakah you give, the more it will help. And he says, af al pi, don't care for this Gemara where it says אל יבזבז יותר מחומש, don't give more than a חומש. And the pshat here is also, the Gemara says אל יבזבז יותר. יבזבז, the word בזבוז means, you know, who translates, translate in English? What is it? To splurge, just to throw out money, says, when you So then you don't give more than a חומש, but if it's not בזבוז, if it's for buying something, for buying your kapparah, then there is no such thing, that's not בזבוז, then you're allowed, and the more you give, the greater the kapparah is. But after all this is said and done, the main thing is that we know that when you give tzedakah, it's מקרב the geulah because it brings a person to the highest מדרגות, it brings a person to bitul to Hashem and כפרת עוונות and אתכפיא סטרא אחרא. You give away actually part of yourself, and that's why this is מקרב the geulah. And we hope that the geulah will be here very, very soon, and we shouldn't have to wait much longer, but very, very soon.

Yes. Alright, I looked at the clock, 9:00. Yes, who's? It's better here. Simple question, what about taking salary from a... heard a lot of discussions of... Wait, but if it's, if If it's the truth is I started off that this is not a halacha class. You're asking, what about taking these? If you know the money was stolen, then you shouldn't take it. You know the money came to him not in a kosher way. There are some people who are makpid, who are careful not to take tzedakah from a מחלל שבת, because his money that he earns is money that could come from חילול שבת. Now, I don't know if I ever told the story or not. In Yeah, yeah. In Rav Zalman Duchman's sefer called Lishmoa Ozen, where he has a lot of stories, he tells a story. The story of Rav Hillel Paritcher. Rav Hillel Paritcher was a famous Rav Hillel Paritcher, famous chasid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Mitteler Rebbe. He was a big tzadik. He had a minhag that he wouldn't take money from a מחלל שבת. And once, somebody who was sent as a messenger from him to collect, did take money from a מחלל שבת. And when he brought him the money, so the way the story is told there, when he brought him the money and gave it to him in his hand, he looked at the money, and he picked out some of the money, and obviously it was the money from the מחלל שבת, and he threw it out the window. That's the story written there. When he gave this sefer, when Rav Zalman Duchman gave the sefer into the Rebbe to look over, so the Rebbe commented on some of the stories. On this story, the Rebbe made a comment. And the comment is, I don't believe the story. And the Rebbe writes, does it make sense? A person who is a מחלל שבת and he's lacking mitzvot, and here he has a chance to do a mitzvah, we should deprive him from this mitzvah, too? So I don't believe it. If you know for sure that this guy got it from חילול שבת, I'm sure if you know he worked on Shabbos and the money he work he gained from חילול שבת he'll bring to you, I doubt you can take. Shouldn't take it, but or if you know he stole the money from somebody, you can't take it, but I doubt you're allowed to take. Or if you know a guy came from gambling which you're not allowed, and so the gambling money he gave or from drugs money, then you can't take. But when a Yid is not a frummer Yid, and could be he does these things, and he brings, a chazakah is you don't have to suspect this money came specific from there. And therefore, the Rebbe said if he has a chance to do this mitzvah, why to deprive him from this mitzvah, too? Okay. That's מעלות, that's, yeah, that's the No, that's that's not part of it. This is still, it goes for the higher, that's the Yeah, it says giving a loan No, no, no, no, that's big equivalent. Talking about for interest, that's for sure. Unless you make a היתר עיסקא. Right, but giving someone a job is also not tzedakah. You're not losing anything. Yes, just one more question then we'll stop, please. And that's all this. That's tzedakah, yeah, yeah. Because these are these are for the needs of the people. This is done for the needs of the people and the people can't, if everyone could afford to just give for this, he would do it. So it's adding to the lack of what people need and people don't are not able to afford to to do it. So it's helping the people who can't afford. Okay.