If your brother becomes impoverished and he falters with you, you shall hold him up. (Vayikra 25:34)
This pasuk speaks about the mitzvah of tzedakah.
The Rambam writes:
We must be more careful with the mitzvah of tzedakah than with all the positive mitzvos, because giving tzedakah is a sign of a tzaddik, a sign of Avraham Avinu’s descendants.... Anyone who shows mercy, mercy will be shown to him, as it says, ונתן לך רחמים ורחמך והרבך – “He will give you mercy and have mercy on you and increase you.”
Chazal say that if a person gives tzedakah, he merits increased wealth. Hashem blesses his endeavors. And David Hamelech says in Tehillim:
Fortunate is he who gives thought to the needy; on a bad day, Hashem will rescue him. Hashem will protect him and grant him life, and he will be fortunate on earth, and You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies. Hashem will support him on the bed of illness. You will overturn the sickbed of his illness.
If a person is having a “bad day,” even if he is very sick and likely to die, in the merit of the tzedakah that he always gave, Hashem will turn around his sickness and he will live.
But if we look carefully at the pasuk we will see that it is not enough to just have mercy on the needy. We need to “give thought to the needy” – לל דיל אשכמ. The Dubner Maggid explains what this means:
There are two kinds of benefactors who have mercy on the poor. The first waits for the poor person to come to him and tell him about his difficulties and ask for help. Then he shows mercy on him and gives him a generous donation. The second kind “gives thought to the needy.” He takes the initiative to go and ask the poor person how he is faring and whether he has everything he needs, and what help could be offered to him.
The difference between these two types of benefactors emerges when the poor person falls ill and can’t go to knock on the doors of the wealthy, or if the poor person is the sort who is too embarrassed to request help. The first benefactor only helps when he is asked, and since the poor person can’t come to ask, he might perish in his troubles. But the second benefactor, the one who “gives thought to the needy,” will inquire about the poor person’s welfare, find out where he is, pay a visit to him and attend to his needs.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds to these two types of benefactors according to their own behavior. One pasuk says יקראני ואענהו – “He will call out to Me and I will answer him.” Another pasuk says והיה טרם יקראו ואני אענה – “Before they call out, I will answer.”
What’s the difference between the two?
Sometimes a time of trouble comes to the world, and the Heavenly gates of prayer are closed, and tefilos are not being answered. Or a person could suddenly fall very ill or get in an accident and be unable to daven. The first pasuk says that “he will call out to Me,” and only then “I will answer him.” If the person can’t get a tefilah through to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he is in trouble. This pasuk applies to the benefactor who waits until the poor person comes to him and asks for assistance.
But if the benefactor’s practice is not to wait for the poor person to come knocking on his door, he rather “gives thought to the needy” and goes to see how he is doing, then the second pasuk applies to him. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will come to his assistance even before he prays for it. “Before they call out, I will answer.”
If we show that extra care for the needy and inquire after their needs, then midah k’neged midah, Hashem will help us in every situation.
