T180 PNC - Segulah of Redemption — Money Is Judgments / Pidyon Sweetens Dinim (1 seg)

Money represents an aspect of judgments (dinim) — as the Talmud (Pesachim 119a) notes: 'All that stand on their feet' refers to a person's money, which enables him to stand on his feet. Money therefore embodies the judgments that are bound to material existence. The spiritual remedy (segulah) of pidyon (redemption) — specifically the pidyon offering given to the tzaddik — works by using money (the material of judgments) as the vehicle for sweetening and releasing those very judgments. When a person gives money to the tzaddik as a pidyon, the money carries his spiritual DNA and life-energy. The tzaddik then works with this 'material of judgment' to sweeten it and redirect it from strict judgment to mercy. This is why the pidyon has been a practice since ancient times — it is not charity but a spiritual transaction that uses the currency of the material world to repair the spiritual world.