The Tzaddikim Return the Rewards for the Mitzvos to the Jews Who Performed Them
We will now introduce a teaching from our holy teacher the Arizal (Sha’ar HaKavanos, Kavanat HaAmidah, Drush 6). In Shemoneh Esrei, in the berachah of “Ahl HaTzaddikim,” we say: "ותן שכר טוב לכל הבוטחים בשמך באמת ושים חלקנו עמהם"—and give ample reward to all who sincerely trust in Your name and put our lot with them. We will summarize what he says:
Occasionally, a person commits transgressions that cancel out his mitzvos and prevents him from receiving the rewards for his mitzvos. In the meantime, until he performs teshuvah, the malachim and advocates generated by the mitzvos he performed are given to a tzaddik. There are, however, select, outstanding tzaddikim who do not wish to benefit from the deeds of others. Hence, when the ones who actually performed the mitzvos perform teshuvah, these tzaddikim happily return the rewards they received to them. Therefore, in this berachah, we pray to the Almighty to place the rewards that have accrued to us for the mitzvos we performed in Olam HaZeh but did not receive on account of our sins with these outstanding (altruistic) tzaddikim, so that they will return them to us when we perform teshuvah.
So, even if we have yet to achieve the level of performing mitzvos l’shma, and HKB”H combines our less-than-ideal deeds with the intentions of tzaddikim who yearn to perform those mitzvos l’shma, the rewards for our mitzvos will belong to them. Nevertheless, we can be consoled by praying: "ושים חלקנו עמהם". We beseech HKB”H to place our portions of the mitzvos that we performed “lo l’shma” with those tzaddikim who do not wish to benefit from others in this manner.
