50 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023
O
ne of the secrets of human great-
ness is knowing where to direct
our limited energy and time in
order to make an imprint on the world
and transform ourselves. Because our
resources are finite, we need to think stra-
tegically; we need to focus
our attention on the things
that have maximum impact.
The question is: What kind
of actions have maximum
impact?
The Torah, God’s own
handbook on living the best
life, can give us direction.
In this week’s parshah, Beshalach, we
encounter one of the most inspiring and
illuminating moments in Jewish history —
the splitting of the Sea of Reeds.
The Jewish people have left Egypt amid
a swirl of miraculous supernatural events.
Pharaoh then decides to bring us back to
slavery and pursues us to the edge of the
sea. The Jewish people are hemmed in by
the vast expanse of water on one side and
by the Egyptian army on the other, and
God splits the sea, enabling the Jewish
people to pass through on dry land, with
the Egyptian soldiers drowning in the
depths when they try to follow.
In the aftermath of this miracle, which
arrives on top of all of the miracles of the
Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people
spontaneously break out in song, declar-
ing: “This is my God, and I will glorify
Him.” (Exodus 15:2) Our sages explain that
the word “this” indicates they had such a
degree of prophetic insight that they were,
in a manner of speaking, able to point to
God, and perceive Him with a clarity that
even the greatest prophets in later genera-
tions were unable to experience.
The phrase: “
And I will glorify Him”
— in Hebrew, “v’anveihu” — is a gateway
to understanding how best to direct our
efforts for how to change the world. The
Talmud (Shabbat 133b) points out that
v’anveihu actually comprises two words:
“Ani v’hu — me and him.” The Talmud
explains this is teaching us a fundamental
lesson on how to live: “Be similar to Him
— just as God is gracious and compas-
sionate, you, too, should be gracious and
compassionate.”
In other words, the way we glorify God
is by being compassionate, like Him.
What does this mean practically? The
Torah says: “You shall follow God your
Lord” (Devarim 13:5). The Gemara (Sotah
14a) defines this as follows: just as Hashem
clothes the naked, visits the sick, comforts
the mourner and buries the dead, so, too,
should we strive to follow Him in these
endeavors, emulating His kindness and
compassion.
The Talmud gives examples for each of
these acts of kindness: God clothed Adam
and Eve when they realized they were
naked; He visited Abraham when he was
recovering from his late-life circumcision;
He comforted Isaac after the death of his
mother, Sarah; and He buried Moses.
The Rambam includes chessed, kindness,
among the list of positive commandments
(mitzvah N. 8), based on another verse:
“You shall walk in the ways of God.”
We see that in Judaism, doing kindness,
chessed, isn’t just a nice thing to do. As one
of the 613 commandments, it is no less
than an obligation.
And here’s the crucial factor — chessed
is the only one of the 613 commandments
where the source of the mitzvah is the
conduct of Hashem, Himself. For all of the
other mitzvot, God says “this is what you
should do” or “this is what you shouldn’t
do.” But when it comes to chessed, Hashem
says: “Do what I do.”
From here, we learn something very
profound: to be kind is to be Godly. When
we are kind, we are doing God’s work on
this Earth. And that’s the real power of
chessed: its source is the source of all power.
Rooted in God’s own behavior, it has the
capacity to create and transform worlds.
This explains why chessed is considered
one of the “three things on which the
world stands.” (Pirkei Avot 1:2) Let’s probe
a bit deeper into this mitzvah of emulating
our Creator through acts of kindness.
THE MITZVAH OF CHESSED
Firstly, the idea of following God’s exam-
ple by alleviating human suffering is an
expression of being — as the Talmud puts
it — a “partner with God in creation.”
(Shabbat 10a) God created the world in
six days, but it didn’t end there. The work
of “creating” the world — of nurturing
and sustaining human life, of making
the world a better, kinder place — is an
continued on page 51
SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
Chief Rabbi
Warren
Goldstein
How To Become
Great