Tzom means to fast. Its Hebrew spelling comes to the numerical value of 136. There are two other words in Hebrew that also have the numerical value of 136: kol, meaning voice, and mamon, meaning money.
They are three interrelated pathways to averting harsh decrees that hold equal importance.
The three show up in the climax of the High Holiday prayer, Unetaneh Tokef, where it is declared that teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah can avert the harsh decree. The three smaller words – tzom, kol, mamon – appear above them in the machzor as their respective “keys.”
Tzom unlocks teshuvah because fasting is an act of self-denial that asserts that you are more than your appetites, which is the very foundation of repentance.
Kol unlocks tefillah because prayer is fundamentally about crying out from a genuine inner place. The Talmud teaches that the gates of tears are never closed; the voice is the vessel that carries the heart upward.
Mamon unlocks tzedakah because giving charity is almost like giving a portion of your life itself, a representation of the hours of one’s labor and existence.