The Alter Rebbe is encouraging Chassidim to give tzedakah, by explaining what happens in Ruchnius when we give tzedakah!

We learned that when we give tzedakah, we make Hashem’s name complete.

Hashem’s name is complete when we have not just the Yud of Hashem’s name, but also the Hey. Later we will see how Hashem’s name is made through giving tzedakah, but first we need to learn what the Chachomim teach us, that with Hashem’s name Yud and Hey, Olam Haba and Olam Hazeh were created.

Yesterday, the Alter Rebbe explained that the Yud of Hashem’s name is what gives chayus to Olam Haba, where the malochim are, and today we will learn about the Hey of Hashem’s name:

The Hey of Hashem’s name gives chayus to Olam Hazeh, this world.

Why?

We can understand this better by using a mashal of how a person speaks.

When we talk, there are two parts:

1) One is the sound that comes from our breath.

2) The other is the way we move our mouth and throat to shape that sound into the 22 letters of the Alef-Beis.

The different letters in our speech come from a very deep koach in our neshama. This is like the Yud of Hashem’s name, which shows a very deep part of Hashem — Hashem’s pnimius.

But we can’t hear those letters without the sound itself, which comes from our breath.

Our breath is like the Hey of Hashem’s name. (Without trying to shape the sound of our breath into a letter, it will just sound like a Hey!) This isn’t as deep of a koach as the letters. This is a mashal for the Hey of Hashem’s name.

Now we can understand why Olam Hazeh gets its chayus from the Hey of Hashem’s name! This Gashmius’dike world can’t handle seeing the deep chayus of Hashem from the Yud. Instead, the Yud gives chayus to Olam Haba. This world gets its chayus from the Hey of Hashem’s name, which the world can handle.

One of the things we learn from today’s Tanya is how we can see this in the shapes of the letters!

The letter Hey has a line across the top, and a line on both sides. This reminds us of how Hashem is everywhere — on every side! His chayus is spread out all over the whole world.

The Yud is very small, like Olam Haba that we CAN’T see!

We will see later how this helps us understand why it’s so important to give Tzedakah.