“Then your light will burst out like the dawn [and your healing [vaarukhatekha] will quickly grow]” (Isaiah 58:8). Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: Even the one in whose regard it is written: “You will prolong [vehaarakhta] your days” (Deuteronomy 22:7), “will quickly grow.”49The messianic era and the World to Come, which are alluded to in the phrase “you will prolong your days” (see Kiddushin 39b), will come quicker as a reward for giving charity.
“Your justice [tzidkekha] will go before you” (Isaiah 58:8); all of your toil is for yourself.50You will reap the reward of your efforts in the mitzva of giving charity. Therefore, “the glory of the Lord will accompany you” (Isaiah 58:8), “then you will call and the Lord will answer” (Isaiah 58:9). “If you remove the yoke [mota] from your midst,” (Isaiah 58:9), these are repaid promissory notes.51Once the loan is repaid, the lender must rip up the loan documents.
“Finger-pointing and evil speech” (Isaiah 58:9), if you see another who is fleeing from oppressors, if he went on this path, say that he went on that path; if he did not go on this path, say that he did go on this path. “And offer your soul to the hungry” (Isaiah 58:10), Rabbi Levi said: If you do not have anything to give him, comfort him with words. Say to him: ‘My soul goes out to you, as I do not have anything to give to you.’
“And satisfy the afflicted soul” (Isaiah 58:10): if you do so, “your light will shine in the darkness and your blackness will be like the noon” (Isaiah 58:10); “the Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your soul in brightness and strengthen your bones” (Isaiah 58:11). Rabbi Tavyomei said: If you do so, you will be like your Creator, in whose regard it is written: “My beloved is clear and ruddy” (Song of Songs 5:10).
“And strengthen [yaḥlitz] your bones,” – He will rescue, strengthen, save you, and give you rest, just as it says: “She shall remove [veḥaletza] his shoe from his foot” (Deuteronomy 25:9);52So too, God will remove you from your troubles. just as it says: “As a vanguard [ḥalutzim] you shall pass” (Deuteronomy 3:18). Save, just as it says: “Save me [ḥaletzeni], Lord, from evil people” (Psalms 140:2).
And give you rest; from here, the Sages established to say: May it please You to give us rest [vehaḥalitzenu] on Shabbat. “You shall be like a saturated garden” (Isaiah 58:11), this is the Garden; “and a water source whose water never fails” (Isaiah 58:11), this is Eden.