Igrot Kodesh · Letter 1884 — Faith & Bitachon

By the grace of Hashem,

3 Marcheshvan 5713,

Brooklyn,

Greetings and blessings,

I learned, with pleasure, that your son has just had a son, at a fruitful moment. I would like, by the present, to express to you my blessing of mazal tov, as also to your wife. You will please transmit my wishes also to your son and his wife. May Hashem grant them to introduce him into the covenant of our father Avraham, at a good and positive moment, to raise him toward Torah, the marriage canopy, and good deeds, in largesse. And may the grandparents, on either side, conceive from them a Jewish and chassidic* satisfaction.

The Midrash[1] reports a question which was posed to our Sages: "If Hashem desires that the Jews be circumcised, why are they not born so from the start?" Our Sages answered that many creatures of this world were made, from the start, to be transformed.

Such is precisely the finality of man, who must metamorphose the creation. It is clear that Hashem does not need him. He could make that everything be revealed here below in the most perfect manner. Nevertheless, He wished to confer a merit on Israel. Each time that He grants children, health, and prosperity to a Jew, He gives him nothing for free, but desires that he merit what he receives. He therefore confides a mission to him, thanks to which all the benefits that he subsequently obtains are not the "bread of shame," but indeed the retribution of his effort. In consequence, the more a man receives good, the more he must intensify his effort to bring to good the mission which is confided to him.

It is for this reason that it is said that "Rabbi honored the rich[2]." Indeed, these bring their financial support to persons or to institutions. Now, Hashem "nourishes the entire world by His goodness." He could therefore have made these persons or these institutions receive directly what they need. However, He chose to confide the mission of it to the rich one and to give him the means of this gift. There is here a benefit of Hashem, permitting a Jew to make the effort consisting in taking from the tzedakah* what he disposes of, but which, in reality, belongs to others.

It is in this way that Hashem testifies of His confidence in this rich one, who, no doubt, will acquit himself of the mission which is confided to him, even if the evil inclination affirms to him that this money belongs to him. The rich one will therefore give it to the poor or to the institution, which, at the moment of this gift, can constitute, for him, an important test.

It is precisely for this that "Rabbi honored the rich," those whom Hashem confronts with the cruel test of wealth. He did so also because "the result is in measure with the effort[3]." A rich one has the means to surmount this test, and, when he does so, he obtains not only the recompense of the mitzvah of tzedakah*, but also the realization of the promise according to which "you shall tithe in order to enrich yourself." What he gives to tzedakah* will in no way be lacking to him, and, much more, he will be even richer than he was previously.

[1] See Midrash Rabbah Bereishis, chapter 11, paragraph 6 and its commentaries.
[2] Whose efforts to serve Hashem must be all the more important as they are rich.
[3] Literally, "the hollow on the back of the camel is in measure with the weight of its burden."