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to look for any specific traits
of character. He had simply
told him to find someone
from his own extended family.
Eliezer, however, formulated
a test:
“Lord, God of my master
Abraham, make me successful
today, and show kindness to
my master Abraham. See,
I am standing beside this
spring, and the daughters of
the townspeople are coming
out to draw water. May it be that when
I say to a young woman, ‘Please let
down your jar that I may have a drink,’
and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your
camels, too’ — let her be the one you
have chosen for your servant Isaac. By
this I will know that you have shown
kindness [chesed] to my master.” (Gen.
24: 12-14)
His use of the word chesed here is no
accident, for it is the very characteristic
he is looking for in the future wife of
the first Jewish child, Isaac, and he
found it in Rivka.
It is the theme, also, of the book of
Ruth. It is Ruth’s kindness to Naomi,
and Boaz’s to Ruth that Tenach seeks to
emphasize in sketching the background
to David, their great-grandson, who
would become Israel’s greatest king.
Indeed, the sages said that the three
characteristics most important to Jewish
character are modesty, compassion and
kindness.
The sages based it on the acts of God
himself. Rav Simlai taught: “The Torah
begins with an act of kindness and ends
with an act of kindness. It begins with
God clothing the naked: “The Lord God
made for Adam and his wife garments
of skin and clothed them,” and it ends
with Him caring for the dead: “And He
[God] buried [Moses] in the Valley.”

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES
Chesed — providing shelter for
the homeless, food for the hungry,
assistance to the poor, visiting the sick,
comforting mourners and providing a
dignified burial for all — became

constitutive of Jewish life. During the
many centuries of exile and dispersion
Jewish communities were built around
these needs. There were hevrot, “friendly
societies,” for each of them.
In 17th-century Rome, for example,
there were seven societies dedicated to
the provision of clothes, shoes, linen,
beds and warm winter bed coverings
for children, the poor, widows and
prisoners. There were two societies
providing trousseaus, dowries and the
loan of jewelry to poor brides. There
was one for visiting the sick, another
bringing help to families who had
suffered bereavement, and others to
perform the last rites for those who
had died — purification before burial
and the burial service itself. Eleven
fellowships existed for educational
and religious aims, study and prayer,
another raised alms for Jews living
in the Holy Land, and others were
involved in the various activities
associated with the circumcision of
newborn boys. Yet others provided
the poor with the means to fulfil
commands such as mezuzot for their
doors, oil for the Chanukah lights and
candles for the Sabbath.
Chesed in its many forms became
synonymous with Jewish life and one
of the pillars on which it stood. Jews
performed kindnesses to one another
because it was “the way of God” and
also because they or their families had
had intimate experience of suffering
and knew they had nowhere else to
turn. It provided an access of grace in
dark times. It softened the blow of the

loss of the Temple and its
rites.
Once, as R. Yohanan was
walking out of Jerusalem, R.
Joshua followed him. Seeing
the Temple in ruins, he cried,
“Woe to us that this place
is in ruins, the place where
atonement was made for
Israel’s iniquities.” R. Yohanan
said to him: “My son, do not
grieve, for we have another
means of atonement which
is no less effective. What is it? It is
deeds of lovingkindness, about which
Scripture says, ‘I desire lovingkindness
and not sacrifice’” (Hosea 6:6).[7]
Through chesed, Jews humanized
fate as, they believed, God’s chesed
humanizes the world.
It also added a word to the English
language. In 1535 Myles Coverdale
published the first-ever translation
of the Hebrew Bible into English (the
work had been begun by William
Tyndale who paid for it with his life,
burnt at the stake in 1536). It was when
he came to the word chesed that he
realized that there was no English word
which captured its meaning. It was then
that, to translate it, he coined the word
“lovingkindness.”
The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel used to say, “When I was
young, I admired cleverness. Now
that I am old, I find I admire kindness
more.” There is deep wisdom in those
words. It is what led Eliezer to choose
Rivka to become Isaac’s wife and thus
the first Jewish bride. Kindness brings
redemption to the world and, as in the
case of Stephen Carter, it can change
lives. Wordsworth was right when he
wrote that the “best portion of a good
man’s [and woman’s] life” is their “little,
nameless, unremembered, acts / Of
kindness and of love.”

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served

as the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew

Congregations of the Commonwealth, 1991-2013.

His teachings have been made available to all at

rabbisacks.org. This essay was written in 2014.

“CHESED” IS PROVIDING SHELTER
FOR THE HOMELESS, FOOD FOR
THE HUNGRY, ASSISTANCE TO
THE POOR, VISITING THE SICK,
COMFORTING MOURNERS
AND PROVIDING A DIGNIFIED
BURIAL FOR ALL.