The Chofetz Chaim once said before a large crowd, "In our generation, anyone who has a mouth must use it to give chizuk to others." In the Chofetz Chaim's generation, many people began being lenient with Shabbos observance, family purity, etc. The Chofetz Chaim encouraged everyone to give drashos and to rouse people to teshuvah.
Once, when the Chofetz Chaim went off the podium, he heard people saying, "The Chofetz Chaim is a tzaddik! He can speak and rouse people to teshuvah, but what can we do?" The Chofetz Chaim overheard them and immediately returned to the podium to add this essential mashal:
There was a poritz who demanded that his servants serve him purified water. Once, someone brought him regular water to drink. After taking a sip, he immediately spit out the water. "Why did you bring me dirty water? When you bring me water, it must be purified first." Sometime later, there was a fire in the poritz's home. The poritz shouted for help, but it took a long time before people came with water to put out the fire. "What took you so long?" the poritz complained. "By the time you came with buckets of water, half my home burned down!" "You told us to purify the water first," the servants explained. "We purified the water and came as quickly as we could." The poritz said, "When there is a fire, any water will do."
8. Reb Mordechai Chaim Slonim zt'l once waited his turn to use a tiny mikvah in Teveria. The town's fool, who was present then, announced, "Rabboisai! The holy rav is here! Make room so that the holy rav can toivel!" After his tevilah, Reb Mordechai Chaim said, "Everyone knows that this man is the town's fool, and the mikvah isn't the ideal place for honoring others, either. Nevertheless, when he honored me, it warmed my heart. Hakadosh Baruch Hu placed into the fabric of creation that people enjoy honor, regardless of who is bestowing the honor, and therefore, we should seek to honor others." With a kind word, we can give people much chizuk and hope.
9. Amon and Moav were goyim. Who needs their praise and admiration? Who needs their encouragement? Nevertheless, apparently, we needed it. Their kind words would have helped us. Amon and Moav were punished severely because they refrained from providing this benefit to Bnei Yisrael.
The Chofetz Chaim said, "The same is with delivering speeches in our generation. There were generations when one needed to be a tzaddik before speaking in public. But now, a fire is raging. Whoever has the ability to speak must do so."
To a large extent, today, chizuk of a different nature is needed. In our generation, people need to hear a good word. It isn't rebuking that people need to hear. They need to hear that Hashem loves us, that they can succeed in avodas Hashem, that they are doing good, etc. One doesn't need to be a great tzaddik to do this. Every person must use the talents Hashem gave him to put out this fire and to help their fellow man.
There is a prohibition for a descendant of Amon and Moav to marry into Bnei Yisroel (see Devarim 23:4-7). The reason is לא אשר דבר על ...ממצרים בצאתכם בדרך ובמים בלחם אתכם קדמו, "It is because they did not greet you with bread and water on the road when you were leaving Mitzrayim..." The Chinuch explains that people with such bad traits don't deserve to marry into the Jewish nation.
The Beis Yosef (א"מהריק דרשות printed in Or Tzaddikim) teaches, "We can say that דבר על means 'for the words.' They are punished because they didn't share kind, encouraging words." He explains that the Yidden didn't need bread or water because the manna fell every morning, and they drank the water of Miriam's well. So why are we so harsh with Amon and Moav that we can't marry them? The answer is that their primary fault was על דבר; they didn't share kind, encouraging words with the Jewish nation.
Everyone needs chizuk, from the greatest to the smallest, and those who provide it deserve great reward. The Chofetz Chaim (Shemiras HaLashon vol.2 ch.7) shares the following idea: Imagine that you are attending a fundraising dinner, and the goal is to raise money to build the Beis HaMikdash. Everyone present will be moser nefesh to donate whatever they can. Who wouldn't want to participate in the building of the third Beis HaMikdash?
We have the opportunity, always, as it states (Yeshayah 1:27), בצדקה ושביה, the galus will be redeemed in the merit of tzedakah. Every time you give tzedakah, you add a brick towards the building of the third Beis HaMikdash.
However, there are poor people who cannot give much tzedakah. How can they contribute towards building the Beis HaMikdash? They should say kind words to the poor and the suffering. The Me'il Tzedakah calls this "A tzedakah that doesn't cost money." This form of tzedakah also builds the Beis HaMikdash.
A wealthy person visiting Eretz Yisrael gave his relative a thick wad of one-hundred-dollar bills and told him to distribute the money to the tzedakah of his choice.
