Tanya תניא

NINE. My beloved, brethren and friends—who are to me as my soul: I come as one who reminds and awakens those who sleep the slumber of the vanities of vanities, and to open the eyes of the blind. Let them consider and see that throughout their life all their striving, longing, and aiming for all in which there is the “life of their spirit” be in “the source of the living waters” [the Fountainhead of all life], with respect to the soul, as well as to the flesh [i.e., all mundane matters and occupations for livelihood]. Be not like those that do everything for their own sake! Let not the House of Israel be like all the nations that feed, provide, and esteem their wives and children out of love. For it is written: “Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth”; this means that even in mundane matters they will not, Heaven forfend, separate from the True One, to bear false witness, Heaven forfend, by reciting the Shema every evening and morning with closed eyes: “the L–rd is One”—in the four directions, and in the Heavens above and on earth below, while, as the eyes of the blind are opened, “You cause your eyes to close upon Him, and He is no more,” Heaven forfend.

Only this shall be befitting us when all our engagements with mundane affairs are not for their own sake but in order to vivify the souls, the portions of G–d, and to supply what they lack out of gratuitous kindness. For thereby we give the form a semblance to its Former—“the L–rd is One,” for the chesed of G–d endures at all time—a true chesed —to animate the universe and all that fills it, every single moment. It is just that according to the Torah a man’s wife and children take precedence over all others, except for the saints of that generation—who take precedence over one’s children and the saints of the Land of Israel take precedence over the saints in the Diaspora, [aside of the fact that they did not leave anyone in the Diaspora comparable to themselves], and suffice this for the initiated.

Therefore, my beloved, my brethren: set your hearts to these words expressed in great brevity (and, please G–d, personally I will speak to them at length)—how in these times, with the advent of the Messiah, the principal service of G–d is the service of charity, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “Israel will be redeemed only through charity.” Our Sages, of blessed memory, did not say that the study of Torah is equivalent to the performance of lovingkindness except in their own days. For with them the principal service was the study of Torah and, therefore, there were great scholars: Tannaim and Amoraim. However, with the advent of the Messiah, as “the Hut of David has fallen” to a level of “feet” and “heels”—which is the level of “Action”—there is no way of truly cleaving to it and to convert the darkness into its light, except through a corresponding category of action, namely the act of charity. For, as known to the intelligent, the plane of action with reference to Divinity is the notion of a diffusion and efflux of vitality to the nethermost—to him who has nothing of his own. And whoever sacrifices his impulse in this respect and opens his hand and heart subdues the sitra achara and “converts the darkness into the light” of G–d, blessed be He, Who, with the advent of the Messiah, dwells over us in a state of action; and he will merit to “behold eye to eye, the L–rd returning to Zion …”