"Deeds of Kindness with Added Mystical Intentions"

Part 5: "Giving Charity"

translated and edited from

Tomer (the Palm Tree of) Devorah

of Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (the 'Ramak')

by Rabbi Moshe Miller

1. Caring for a newborn
2. Circumcision
3. Visiting the sick
4. Giving charity
5. Hosting Strangers
6. Attending to the dead
7. Providing for a bride
8. Peace-making

Giving charity to the poor. In terms of the parallel mentioned in the previous installment, this refers to yesod and malchut. The Tikunim explains that the charity [in Hebrew, tzedaka, spelled tzadi, dalet, kuf, hei] befitting them is to say "amen" ninety (tzadi) times during the daily prayers, recite Kedusha four (dalet) times daily, utter one hundred (kuf) blessings daily, and learn from the five (hei) books of the Torah daily.

In addition, every person should draw down "charity" from tiferet for these "poor ones" - each according to his ability - providing them with gleanings from all the sefirot; forgotten sheaves, according to the mystical explanation of the supernal "sheaf", which is bina; and field corners (peah), which derives from malchut itself, being that it is the "corner of the field" in relation to the other sefirot. It is written, "you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger" (Lev. 19:10, 23:22), for even tiferet is a stranger to malchut below, so one must perform these precepts, which rectify tiferet. Similarly, the tithe to the poor raises up malchut (called " the tithe"), which is given to yesod, which is called "poor". And if one binds malchut to tiferet, he gives the tithe to "the stranger". Many rectifications are included in this.

Next installment: Hospitality

Previous Installment: Visiting the Sick

First Installment: Preface

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Rabbi Moshe-Leib Miller, a guest teacher at Ascent when he lived in Israel, was born in South Africa and received his yeshiva education in Israel and America. He is a prolific author and translator, with some twenty books to his name on a wide variety of topics, including a new, authoritative, annotated translation of the Zohar. He currently lives in Chicago.