"Cheder" three hundred sixty-seven in the palace of daily life.
Monday, 2 Kislev, 5704 (1943).
Lessons: Chumash, Vayetzei, second [aliyah], with the commentary of Rashi.
Psalms, on the 2nd of the month, we recite from chapter 10 through chapter 17 inclusive.
Tanya, we continue with the fifth section, Kuntres Acharon. We are in the fourth passage of Kuntres Acharon, and today we continue with another part of it. The lesson begins on page 310 with the words "And behold, in another place," and concludes on that same page 310, with the words "which are specifically in the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah."
The source of the daily saying is a talk delivered by the Rebbe Rayatz on the 14th of Tammuz in the year 5700. In the saying, he speaks about the tremendous virtue of giving charity to a poor person before the morning prayer, and especially if one gives him food before prayer. Let us examine the wording.
He first brings a quotation in the name of the Rebbe Maharash — "my saintly grandfather, my teacher and master" [Adoni Avi Zekeini Mori v'Rabi], who was the grandfather of the Rebbe Rayatz — who "once explained in a maamar" the words of the Gemara in tractate Bava Batra (folio 10, side a). The Gemara discusses the verse in Psalms "I will behold Your face in righteousness," and expounds that the hint is that before "Your face" — before a person prays — he first gives "in righteousness," charity. And the Gemara relates: "This is what Rabbi Elazar did — he would give a coin to a poor person and then pray" — Rabbi Elazar had the practice of first giving a coin to a poor person, and afterward he would pray.
This matter is also brought in the Shulchan Aruch as halacha, that it is good to give tzedakah before prayer. The Alter Rebbe likewise brings this in one of the discourses in Likutei Torah, that there are three things a person must do before prayer — mikveh, the study of Chassidus, and one of them is the giving of tzedakah.
Simply put, the Gemara and halacha state that one should give charity before prayer so that the prayer will be accepted. Here the Rebbe Maharash adds a further point: "for prayer must be with vitality". Beyond the acceptance of the prayer through the power of charity, there is an additional effect: for the one praying is charged with ensuring that his prayer be with vitality — that he have a divine, inner, spiritual vitality, an emotional connection to the prayer; and how does he attain this? Giving charity assists with this.
Why? The Rebbe Maharash says: "And through giving charity to a poor person before prayer, and enlivening him" — you enliven the poor person by giving him charity, and measure for measure, "much vitality is added to the prayer." By virtue of your enlivening the poor person, vitality is added to you in prayer. For the poor person this was physical vitality in its plain sense, and measure for measure the Jew receives spiritual vitality in prayer.
When the Rebbe Maharash wished to speak about something especially powerful, he would make a gesture with his hand — as expressed in the sicha: "and he waved his hand from below to above" — a motion from below to above, "to hint that the abundance is in a state of hafla'ah [transcendent loftiness]"; this was his way of symbolizing something that is in a state of great hafla'ah.
He concludes with a practice of the Rebbe Rashab: "and many times before prayer my father, my teacher and Rebbe" [meaning: my master, my father, my teacher and my Rebbe], who is the father of the Rebbe Rayatz, "would seek out a poor person to give him food to eat" — before prayer he would search for a poor person to give him food, not merely money but actual food; so that when he would give the poor person food and sustain him, there would be in this a great matter of vitality within the prayer.
When the Rebbe brings this story, he adds an interesting point from those days. He relates that there was a chassid of the Rebbe Maharash, whose name was Rabbi Zalman Zlatpolsky, who heard this saying from the Rebbe Maharash. That Rabbi Zalman returned to his town and told it to another chassid, whose name was Chaim Ber, who was a great scholar in Chassidus and a great learned man. From then on, that Chaim Ber began the practice of setting out, every day before prayers, drink, "l'chaim," and refreshments, so that the poor who needed to taste something and had nothing at home — would have something with which to sustain themselves.
Regarding this, the Rebbe Maharash said: You think that Chaim Ber's great intellectual grasp came from studying much Chassidus? No; it came from the cakes he would give to the poor before prayer — that is what enabled him to attain such profound comprehension in Chassidus. From this we see the great virtue of giving to a poor person before prayer.