Monday, December 15, 2008

Giving beats everything

I recently heard a from a friend of mine that Rav Shach had said that right before Moshiach comes, the only ones who will be giving tzedakah will be the bnei Torah, and they will receive all the reward of the world as no one else is giving.

As a continuation of the post "Give it or lose it," the Chofetz Chaim asks an important question. Why is it necessary for Hashem to decree how much we will make and also how much we lose? Why can't we just have the numbers cancel and make less?

The Chofetz Chaim brings the Zohar that explains that when a person goes to sleep at night, his soul comes up to heaven and they present it with a list of things he has done that day. The soul must sign on the dotted line. If there are sins that he has done that day, then the forces of evil try to overtake him. But Hashem redeems him, and instead allows the soul to return to the world, instead to receive some kind of financial loss in place of being destroyed by the evil forces.

Now a person can actually take that loss and instead give Tzedakah with the money. What this accomplishes is that instead of the money being lost by his refrigerator breaking down, he is able to redeem the money and gain eternal reward! Not only that, but the Torah promises that when we give to the poor, not only don't we lose the money, but Hashem pays us back double!

Thus when a person gives tzedakah he is redeeming himself from spiritual suffering, earning eternal reward, and he doesn't lose a single penny he has given!

Based on this idea from Rav Shach, when a person does this during a time when no one else is giving, he not only gets the reward from his action, but he is נוטל שכר כולם - takes all the reward that would have been for all the others who could have given but did not.

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