BESURAS HAGEULO
The Announcement of the Redemption:

Chapter 54

What was said previously is of particular relevance for our period, in which the hope and the "I believe every day that he will come" should be with greater strength and greater vigor, until we can physically see the true and complete Redemption through our righteous Moshiach.

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The mitzvah that possesses a unique merit to hasten the Redemption is the mitzvah of tzedekah - "great is tzedekah for it hastens the Redemption."^[1]

Therefore it's clear that one should increase in the mitzvah of tzedekah. It's preferable if the increase in tzedekah occurs immediately, so that the Redemption (which comes through the mitzvah of tzedekah) should also come immediately.

Especially since "there is none... among us who knows how long,"^[2] it may be that the only thing lacking to bring the Redemption is nothing more than the giving of several coins to tzedekah!...

As the Rambam expresses^[3] it in the form of a final legal decision: "every individual must see himself... and also the whole world as half meritorious and half liable... by doing one mitzvah he and the whole world together will be inclined to the side of merit, and bring about for himself and everyone salvation and deliverance." That is, the action of a single individual, adult or child, that gives a single penny to tzedekah, brings for himself and the whole world the "salvation and deliverance" of the true and complete Redemption.

(From the talk of the First Light of Chanukah 5752 -
during the world-wide "publicizing the miracle")

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1. Bava Basra 10a. See Tanya Chapter 37.

2. Tehillim 74:9.

3. Hilchos Teshuvah, chapter 3, halacha 4.