A person must understand that doing chessed for others is no less important than shemiras einayim and other important aspects of avodas Hashem—not because shemiras einayim is less important, but because chessed toward others will aid him in his shemiras einayim and all other aspects of Yiddishkeit. Chessed conquers the heart of a person and transforms his essence—causing him to feel the Presence of the Shechinah.
The story is told of a chassid of the Ruziner who was tempted with a terrible aveirah, and nothing helped to calm the fire of temptation—until he thought, “Come Shabbos, and I will need to sit with my beloved chaverim. How will I be able to look them in the eye after having done such an aveirah?” Indeed, the power of friendship and brotherhood brings the Shechinah and stops us from aveiros.
So often, people look for eitzos for their nisyonos—without thinking about the fact that Hashem has given us the tools and the kochos to come close to Him by loving other Yidden. How does a person begin loving another Yid? By doing for other Yidden! This is an eitzah that the tzaddikim gave us: To succeed in our avodas Hashem... to ignite our own neshamos...to overcome nisyonos—chessed and love for fellow Yidden will show us the way.
It is the eitzah for everything. As we learned above, this is what will bring the geulah for all Klal Yisrael. And if this has the power to redeem all Klal Yisrael, how much more so can it be the redemption for each of us out of our personal galus.
