To give Hashem’s donation to atone for your souls. (Shemos 30:15)
The Torah commands us to give half a shekel to Beis Hamikdash, as a kaparah for our souls. This is because giving tzedakah has a special quality, more than any other mitzvah, to protect us from dangers.
It says: Tzedakah saves from death.
All mitzvos do indeed bring life and blessing to a person, as it says: Fear of Hashem is the source of life.
And the Torah says about itself: He who finds me has found life, and has attained good will from Hashem.
But tzedakah has a special segulah in this regard. Doing any other mitzvah will tip the Heavenly scales in our favor, causing us to merit life. But tzedakah even has the ability to save a person from harsh, evil decrees, also when his zechuyos are not weighty enough to tip the scales in his favor. This is because tzedakah saves from death as a direct effect.
The world is a stormy sea. Its many dangers surround us like menacing waves at every moment. Torah and mitzvos are the ship in which a person shelters from these dangers. If a person does aveiros, he breaks the ship, and is thrown into the raging waters that threaten to drown him. But if he has a life raft, he can save his life even if his ship is wrecked and he is in the water.
This life raft is the mitzvah of tzedakah. The ordinary mitzvos that a person does will not save him if his sins outnumber his merits. Only tzedakah can do that. It rescues him even after evil decrees were already decreed upon him.
When we encourage someone else to do a mitzvah, this is the best thing in the world that we can do for him. But if we present him with the opportunity to give tzedakah, it is much greater than that, because it is like saving his very life. Sometimes this is literally true. There might be a gezeirah on a person to undergo a serious accident or some other tragedy, and Hashem, in His great mercy, sends to him a poor person or a tzedakah representative to knock on his door and put out a life raft for his rescue.
It is really a mistake to treat someone asking for a donation as a nuisance, and begrudgingly give him a few coins. You should greet him with a big smile and a lot of thank-yous, because he is bringing you blessings and life, for you and your family.
Wealth will not help on the day of Divine wrath, but tzedakah will save from death.
The “wealth” that “will not help” is the wealth of mitzvos. Even if a person has a lot of mitzvos, it might not help when Heaven is angry with him. But “tzedakah will save from death” even “on the day of Divine wrath.” And the more a person gives, the more he is saved, and it brings blessing and peace to his home, as it says: The act of tzedakah will be peace.
