MONEY AND LIVELIHOOD.
15. With every step that a person takes and every word he utters in his efforts to make a living, he should have in mind that his purpose in making a profit is to be able to give money to charity. Charity is the tikkun for business activity (Likutey Moharan I, 29:5).
16. Only a person who “hates graft” (Exodus 18:21), which means that he absolutely hates materialism, can acquire true wisdom and understanding, and thereby reach a perception of Godliness. And so the opposite (ibid. I, 30:4).
17. When a person conducts his business honestly and with faith, his soul – his mind and intellect – is renewed through this faith. Through the business activity itself, he can develop spiritually and draw fresh wisdom and a new soul from the light of God’s countenance.
Not everyone is on such a level of Torah scholarship that he can grow intellectually in Torah through his business. But even so, simply by virtue of conducting his business in faith and honesty, a great tikkun is brought about, and a second Jew whose soul is drawn from the same root as his own can benefit greatly, because his intellect is refreshed and expanded through the honest dealings of the first and he is inspired with new energy to learn and devote himself to God (ibid. I, 35:6).