אבל: צדק לפניו יהלך, הוא לשון זכר

However, the verse,22 “Tzedek shall go before him,” is in the masculine gender, both the noun (tzedek) and its matching verb (yehaleich).

היא מדת החסד המתעוררת בלב האדם מעצמו

This refers to the attribute of kindness that is aroused in a man’s heart of his own accord, not through another’s inspiration,

על ידי התעוררות אהבת ה׳ בקריאת שמע, ולדבקה בו ולמסור נפשו באחד

through an arousal of the love of G‑d when reading the Shema,23 cleaving to Him and surrendering his soul at Echad, i.e., as he completes that verse, “…G‑d is One”;

ובכל מאדך כפשוטו וכו׳

[loving G‑d] “with all your wealth,” in the literal sense24…

I.e., the individual’s love and surrender to G‑d inspire him to give tzedakah.

ובאתערותא דלתתא

And as a result of [this] arousal from below —

וכמים הפנים לפנים, כן לב אדם העליון כו׳

for25 as waters reflect face to face, so is the heart of the Supernal Man [that is “upon the throne”] —

אתערותא דלעילא

there is an arousal from above.

הוא המשכת אור אין סוף ברוך הוא, הסובב כל עלמין, למטה מטה בעולם הזה הגשמי בבחינת גילוי, בזמן התחיה

This is [expressed as] a manifest downward flow of the [infinite] Ein Sof-light that encompasses (i.e., transcends) all worlds, down to the nethermost level of this physical world, at the time of the Resurrection,

כמבואר במכתב דאשתקד באריכות

as explained at length in last year’s letter.26

Charity inspired by a person’s avodah during prayer is thus called tzedek, a noun of masculine gender, suggesting emanation and provision — for it gives forth and elicits the transcendent light of sovev kol almin. Moreover, as the Alter Rebbe will soon explain, this kind of unsolicited charity draws down the innermost essence of this light. When, however, one’s giving has to wait for another man’s inspiration, such tzedakah remains a recipient, a mere receptor or vessel for a mere glimmer of the light of sovev kol almin.

וזהו: לפניו יהלך

And this is the [mystical] meaning of [two of the words from the above-quoted verse],27 “[Tzedek] shall go before him.”

The verb yehaleich, here translated “shall go,” in fact appears in this verse in the causative mode: “shall cause to go”; i.e., “shall lead.”

The word lefanav, here translated “before him,” stems from the root panim, meaning “face” or “countenance”.

שמוליך וממשיך פנים העליונים מלמעלה מהאצילות, עד עולם העשיה

Hence: Tzedek leads and elicits the Supernal Countenance, the most essential and inward aspect of the Divine light, drawing it from higher than [the World of] Atzilut, down to the World of Asiyah.

* * *

וכעת עת לקצר, וכל טוב מהם לא יבצר

But let’s close; quite enough I’ve prepared you, and may no kind of blessing be spared you.

הטיבה ה׳ לטובים, ולישרים בלבותם

“Do good, O G‑d, to the good, and to those who are upright in their heart”28 — bless those who donate generously to tzedakah, and also those whose generous intentions are forced to remain unrealized.

כנפש תדרשנו

Such is the prayerful wish of him who seeks [your welfare].29

Addendum

The Rebbe once explained in a talk that the Alter Rebbe’s statement in the above Epistle, that the spiritual effects of tzedakah are drawn down into this physical world at the present time as well, is truly novel. Generally, Chassidut explains that the performance of mitzvot draws the Divine light downward into the World of Atzilut. The parable offered (see Sefer HaMaamarim 5627, p. 433; Sefer HaMaamarim 5629, p. 209) thus describes the reward for mitzvot as being kept in Atzilut within a chest, so to speak, whose key is in the possession of the individual who performed the mitzvah.

This flow of Divine light is incapable of descending into this world — “There is no reward in this world for a mitzvah”30 — for this finite and material world cannot receive the reward that comes from the transcendent level of Divinity called sovev kol almin.

Here, however, the Alter Rebbe states explicitly that “all the acts of charity and kindness that Jews perform in this world, out of the generosity of their pure hearts, are alive and they endure in this physical world until the time of the Resurrection.” Moreover, the Alter Rebbe specifies “in this physical world,” as opposed to the spiritual source of this world. In addition, when he states that the acts of charity “are alive,” how does this term apply in our context?

The Rebbe explains this by citing the following exegesis of the Maggid of Mezritch31 on the verse,32 “You shall observe my statutes and commandments that one is to do and live in them.”

The operative commandments draw down spiritual life-force only when a mitzvah has been actually performed. To consider the tzitzit, for example: Only when a person has used its threads in the performance of the commandment, are all the sublime levels of Divinity drawn downward into the physical world; only then are this person’s thoughts, speech and action (relative to the tzitzit) united; only then do all the laws of tzitzit and all the appropriate Torah passages apply.

The same is true with regard to all the other operative commandments as well. The Maggid concludes that this is the meaning (at the non-literal level of derush) of vechai bahem — “you shall live in them”: every individual Jew draws down spiritual life into the mitzvot he performs.

The above teaching of the Maggid gave the Tzemach Tzedek a fresh insight into a statement with which the Sages extrapolate Moses’ entreaty to be allowed to enter the Holy Land:33 “Let me enter the Land so that all of [the mitzvot] will be fulfilled through me.” The request was not “…so that I will be able to perform the mitzvot,” but rather, “…so that all of [the mitzvot] will be fulfilled and animated through me.” For the commandments are alive and they endure only when a Jew actually performs them.

In this light, the Rebbe concludes, we can understand the above teaching of the Alter Rebbe, that “all the acts of charity and kindness that Jews perform in this world, out of the generosity of their pure hearts, are alive and they endure in this physical world until the time of the Resurrection.”