This Shabbat, we usher in the Jewish month of Elul and we are starting our preparation for the new year, the coronation of the High King and to be able to prepare ourselves spiritually for the New Year.
There’s many different customs brought down in Jewish law how one has to get himself ready for Rosh Hashanna. Many people are more careful and meticulous on their kashrut standards. Others try to go back and learn more Talmud.
This week’s parsha gives us a little preview of the very special mitzvah as a way to prepare ourselves to beseech Hashem, to stand before God on the High holidays.
That is the mitzvah of tzedakah, the mitzvah of charity. The most unnatural thing in the world is, after I work so hard, after I sweat and I toll and I labor, and I put all my energy into earning money for my family, then I take that money and I give it to a stranger. I give it to someone who for whatever reason is not yet able to stand on his own two feet.
This takes a lot of strength, and the Torah tells us פתוח תפתח את ידך לו
Open your hand in a very benevolent way, use a double expression ואל ירע לבבך בתתך לו
Don’t give with an evil heart. Don’t give in a way that will take away from the great mitzvah.
When one puts on tefillin, it doesn’t say you have to do it with a great joy or with a great particular energy. As long as you put on the tefillin, you get the mitzvah.
When it comes to charity, one has to realize that all I am giving is not from my own. I’m giving that gift that God gave me and I’m sharing and being benevolent and sharing it with somebody else.
The mitzvah of tzedakah has to be done בסבר פנים with a very big smile with a good word to the poor person. It’s not enough just to give him the coin or the check or the credit card. We have to do it to give him encouragement, to give him belief in himself, that one day he can stand on his own two feet, God willing בצדקה תכונני through the mitzvah of charity he could stand and establish God’s kingdom in the world.
בצדק אחזה פניך through charity we’ll come to beseech Hashem on the High Holidays
This Shabbat, we should be able to open up our hearts, open up our pockets, and God willing, ושביה בצדקה return and redemption with be on the merit of tzedakah.
Shabbat Shalom.
