How does tzedakah protect your wealth?

Rabbi Landau teaches that receiving blessing is not enough; “you need it to last.” The pasuk says, “Yevarechecha Hashem v'yishmerecha”: Hashem blesses, and He also guards the blessing. That guarding, he explains, is tzedakah.

Chazal teach, “Tzedakah meshameres es hahon,” tzedakah preserves the wealth. It guards the blessing and keeps the channel open. Sometimes, he says, the source is giving and the water flows, “but downstream gets blocked.” Tzedakah is what keeps it flowing to you.

So the two work together: “Shabbos sends blessing and charity makes sure it doesn't disappear.” In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau's practical advice is to check your charity, not in a big way, but a little, regularly, with real intention.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Tzedakah preserves wealth by keeping the channel of blessing open.

Underlying need or longing

We don't only want blessing to arrive; we want it to last.

Deepest human truth

Hashem blesses and guards the blessing. Shabbos sends it, and tzedakah makes sure it doesn't disappear.

More questions from this teaching

• I keep Shabbos, so why isn't the blessing staying with me?