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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.