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On this Mishnah, Maimonides explains that though a one-time donation of (say) a thousand²⁷ gulden is truly praiseworthy, the trait of benevolence does not thereby become embedded within the donor’s psyche to the same extent as it would if he would give these same thousand coins one at a time.

Now, apart from the underlying reason [for this] that R. Moses Maimonides, of blessed memory, clearly explained, viz., “in order to refine the soul by means of the multiplicity of action,”

וְהִנֵּה, מִלְּבַד כִּי הָרַמְבַּ”ם זִכְרוֹנוֹ־לִבְרָכָה בֵּיאֵר הֵיטֵב טַעֲמוֹ וְנִימּוּקוֹ, כְּדֵי לְזַכֵּךְ הַנֶּפֶשׁ עַל־יְדֵי רִבּוּי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה,

an explicit verse in Scripture states that “the effect of tzedakah is for life.”

הִנֵּה מִקְרָא מָלֵא דִּיבֵּר הַכָּתוּב: “פְּעוּלַּת צְדָקָה לְחַיִּים”,

In his Notes and Emendations at the conclusion of [the Hebrew edition of] the Tanya, the Rebbe refers the reader to the following two verses: In Proverbs 10:16 we find, פְּעוּלַּת צַדִּיק לְחַיִּים—“The effect of a tzaddik is for life,” and in Proverbs 11:19 we find, כֵּן צְדָקָה לְחַיִּים—“So is tzedakah for life.” Accordingly, the Rebbe notes that the Alter Rebbe’s citation of the three words פְּעוּלַּת צְדָקָה לְחַיִּים (“the effect of tzedakah is for life”) as part of “an explicit verse” is problematic.

Seemingly, this difficulty could be resolved by interpreting thus: Since “the effect of a tzaddik” is tzedakah (in the spirit of the verse, “G‑d is a ‘tzaddik’: He loves acts of tzedakah”²⁸), the verse which states that “the effect of a tzaddik is for life” in fact seeks to imply that “the effect of a tzaddik—viz., tzedakah—is for life.”

From the note by the Rebbe, however, it is apparent that this interpretation is unsatisfactory, for surely, “an explicit verse” should be explicit without resort to interpretation.

(lit., “from the Life of life”)

דְּהַיְינוּ, שֶׁפְּעוּלָּתָהּ וּסְגוּלָּתָהּ לְהַמְשִׁיךְ חַיִּים עֶלְיוֹנִים מֵחַיֵּי הַחַיִּים אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא

to the Land of Life, i.e., to malchut of Atzilut.

לְאֶרֶץ הַחַיִּים,

The sefirah of malchut in the World of Atzilut is known as the “Land of Life” because (relative to the more “heavenly” levels) it is the lowest level within that World. It is known as the “Land of Life” because it provides life to all the created beings of the three lower Worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah.

The effect of tzedakah, then, is to draw down life-giving Divine energy into the recipient (or “feminine”) attribute called malchut of Atzilut. The source of this life (the “Fountainhead of Life”) is called za, which is the last level within the worlds that are Ein Sof, or infinite. The name za is an acronym for z’eyr anpin, i.e., the bracket of six masculine middot, or emotive attributes of Atzilut. (This yichud of masculine and feminine middot is the “supernal union” spoken of below.)

[The Land of Life, i.e., malchut of Atzilut] is the Shechinah which gives us strength, i.e., the Divine Presence that animates and fortifies created beings, of which it is said, “And You animate them all.”²⁹

הִיא “שְׁכִינַת עוּזֵּינוּ”, שֶׁעָלֶיהָ נֶאֱמַר: “וְאַתָּה מְחַיֶּה אֶת כּוּלָּם”,

The word אַתָּה (“You”) alludes to the sefirah of malchut (the source of G‑d’s creative speech) in the World of Atzilut, for its spelling indicates all the letters from alef to tav, from the first letter of the alphabet to the last, while its letter hey, numerically equivalent to five, alludes to the five organs of verbal articulation, the source of the letters.³⁰

[The Shechinah] is identified with “the sukkah of David that has fallen”³¹ down to the very dust during the time of exile.³²

וְהִיא סוּכַּת דָּוִד הַנּוֹפֶלֶת עַד עָפָר,

As our Sages, of blessed memory, taught: “When [the Jewish people] were exiled to Edom, the Shechinah went with them….”³³

וּכְמַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה: “גָּלוּ לֶאֱדוֹם שְׁכִינָה עִמָּהֶם כוּ’”,

Accompanying them in all their wanderings throughout this last and lowest exile of ours, the Shechinah has thereby been humbled down to the lowest depths. At a time like this, acts of tzedakah can reinvigorate it with the infinite life that they elicit from the Fountainhead of Life, the Ein Sof.

[Tzedakah has this effect] because the arousal [which man initiates] from below, to revive the spirit of the humbled (i.e., the pauper) “who has nothing at all of his own,” elicits an arousal from Above,

כִּי בְּאִתְעָרוּתָא דִלְתַתָּא – “לְהַחֲיוֹת רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים” דְּ”לֵית לֵיהּ מִגַּרְמֵיהּ כְּלוּם” – אִתְעָרוּתָא דִלְעֵילָּא,

The quoted phrase describing the poor is advisedly borrowed from the Kabbalists’ description of the Shechinah as the sefirah (viz., malchut of Atzilut) which “has nothing at all of its own but what is given to it by others,”³⁴ i.e., by the higher sefirot. The similar phrase quoted above thus highlights the fact that mortal man’s charitable initiative in reviving the spirits of his poor neighbor does not merely echo or parallel the “charity” with which the Ein Sof revives the humbled Shechinah: it quite literally activates it.

Tzedakah, then, draws down life from the Fountainhead of Life to the sefirah of malchut of Atzilut, which is also known as the Land of Life—

especially when people offer voluntarily to sustain the inhabitants of the actual Land of Life, for Eretz Yisrael, the geographical Land of Life, corresponds to the heavenly Land of Life,³⁵ viz., malchut of Atzilut.

וּבִפְרָט בְּהִתְנַדֵּב עָם לְהַחֲיוֹת יוֹשְׁבֵי אֶרֶץ הַחַיִּים מַמָּשׁ,

This will suffice for those who understand.

וְדַי לַמֵּבִין.

Now, whoever is enlightened as to so great and wondrous a matter, i.e., the cosmic dynamic traced above, whereby an act of tzedakah draws down supernal life from the blessed Ein Sof to animate the exiled Shechinah,

וְכָל מַשְׂכִּיל עַל דָּבָר גָּדוֹל וְנִפְלָא כָּזֶה

will discover and appreciate how profound are the words of the Sages, of blessed memory, when they said, “Everything is [judged] according to the multiplicity of action.”²⁶

יִמְצָא טוּב טַעַם וָדַעַת, כַּמָּה גְדוֹלִים דִּבְרֵי חֲכָמִים זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה שֶׁאָמְרוּ: “הַכֹּל לְפִי רוֹב הַמַּעֲשֶׂה”,

This refers to the act of charity which is performed numerous times, thereby eliciting the supreme [form of] life, i.e., life that derives from the infinite Fountainhead of Life, by repeatedly bringing about the supreme unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah.

דְּהַיְינוּ מַעֲשֵׂה הַצְּדָקָה הַנַּעֲשֶׂה בִּפְעָמִים רַבּוֹת, לְהַמְשִׁיךְ חַיִּים עֶלְיוֹנִים, לְיַחֵד יִחוּד עֶלְיוֹן פְּעָמִים רַבּוֹת.

Every act of tzedakah draws Kudsha Brich Hu and Ein Sof downward to His Shechinah, down into the lowest levels of this world.

This is also similar to what Maimonides wrote in praise of the repeated giving of tzedakah: “to refine the soul (nefesh).”

וְהַיְינוּ נַמֵי כְּעֵין מַה שֶּׁכָּתַב הָרַמְבַּ”ם: לְזַכֵּךְ הַנֶּפֶשׁ,

These words allude as well to the supreme unification that is thereby effected in the worlds above.

For, as is known from the sacred Zohar,³⁶ the Shechinah is called nefesh (“Soul”) because it is our life and our soul,

כַּנּוֹדָע מִזּוֹהַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ דִּשְׁכִינָה נִקְרֵאת “נֶפֶשׁ”, כִּי הִיא חַיֵּינוּ וְנַפְשֵׁנוּ,

as in the phrase, “Our Soul is stooped to the dust,”³⁷ which alludes to the descent of the Shechinah into exile.

וּכְתִיב: “כִּי שָׁחָה לֶעָפָר נַפְשֵׁנוּ”.

And that is why our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Great is charity, for it brings the Redemption near,”³⁸

וְלָכֵן אָמְרוּ רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה: “גְּדוֹלָה צְדָקָה, שֶׁמְּקָרֶבֶת אֶת הַגְּאוּלָּה”,

by raising [the Shechinah] from the dust by gradual stages with every act of tzedakah,

לַהֲקִימָהּ מֵעָפָר מְעַט מְעַט,

“until³⁹ Shiloh will come”⁴⁰—i.e., until Mashiach comes,⁴¹ at which time the Shechinah will be reinstated to its pristine height.