We see this in another way as well. The Chozeh of Lublin said that a good yedid, a chaver tov, has the power to effect a yeshuah for a person just as a tzaddik can. How does this work? When a person needs a yeshuah... for example in the area of parnassah... he understands that he needs the light of HaKadosh Baruch Hu to reach him, but there is a blockage, something standing in the way. He searches for a way to remove that barrier, and one of the ways to accomplish this is by coming to the tzaddik who infuses him with G-dliness, and where there is Elokus, there is blessing.
A close friend may not be among the tzaddikei hador; nevertheless, when you come together, the neshamos connect. They understand each other, they know each other—and a neshamah has the power to bring the Shechinah to a person. The reason that when two close friends meet, they become filled with joy is because all the outer layers, the levushim that conceal their neshamah, fall away for the moment. They don’t think about the differences between them on the outer level—but they look at the neshamah of each other, and from there flows tremendous love, because at that level they’re one and the same, they come from the same Source. When this togetherness happens, it is another way to bring the Shechinah and blessing to a person.
The concept of “תחילה נענה הוא דבר לאותו צריך והוא חבירו על המתפלל כל, one who davens for his friend, and he too is in need of the same thing, he will be answered first,” works in the same way: When a person davens for his friend, he davens for him with all his heart—and with this he awakens his neshamah, bringing him a yeshuah.
A person must habituate himself to look away from all the differences and levushim of another person. “I don’t even look there. I know one thing; he is a neshamah, I am a neshamah. I love him with all my heart.” And with this he brings shefah to the other person.
