When one supports others by giving tzedakah or using his money for chesed, he opens his heart and mind to great spiritual revelations. This is seen from the following story:
Before his petirah, the Baal Hatanya zy’a told his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch zy’a, that he should visit the places where the Baal Hatanya grew up and see where he was born and educated until his wedding.
Shortly after the Baal Hatanya’s passing, in the year 5573, the Tzemach Tzedek set out to visit those places. He first went to the city of Liazhni, to see the house of his grandfather’s, father, Rav Boruch, where the Baal Hatanya grew up. He also went to the city of Dobramisel, where the family lived at one point. He then went to the city of Lubavitch.
The Tzemach Tzedek merited having his grandfather appear to him in images and dreams many times and to reveal to him secrets of the Torah and chasidus. During these travels, he merited having even more intense and inspirational revelations from the Baal Hatanya.
The Tzemach Tzedek once told his son, the Maharash of Lubavitch zy’a, about one incident that occurred at that time:
While the Tzemach Tzedek was traveling from Dobramisel to Lubavitch, he was in a very exalted state of mind and felt very close to the Baal Hatanya. He hoped that when he got to Lubavitch, he would merit seeing him in an image, with a shining countenance. He thought of several questions he had about both the revealed and hidden Torah and organized them in his mind so that he would be able to ask them to his grandfather.
However, the Baal Hatanya did not appear to him when he arrived in Lubavitch. This caused him a lot of pain and anguish and he felt as if he had fallen from a high mountaintop to a low valley. He had gotten so close to a spiritual revelation but seemed to have fallen short.
He began to examine his actions to see if he had done something wrong that led to this disappointment and deemed him unworthy of seeing his grandfather.
On Wednesday, the 20th of Elul, the Tzemach Tzedek went to daven in shul. On the way, he bumped into a resident of Lubavitch named R’ Pinchos. R’ Pinchos asked him to lend him five rubles so that he could do some business in the marketplace and earn enough money for his Shabbos expenses. The Tzemach Tzedek told him to come to his house after davening to pick up the money.
As the Tzemach Tzedek was preparing to daven and placed his talis on his shoulders, he remembered R’ Pinchos’s request. He realized that it was market day and the market opened very early in the morning, which meant that R’ Pinchos really needed the money immediately. He immediately took off his talis and ran home. He grabbed five rubles and ran to the market to find R’ Pinchos, and he handed him the money.
When he got back to shul, he went to the sink to wash his hands. At that moment, the Baal Hatanya revealed himself to him with a shining face and answered all of his questions.