Chessed

Gemara Sotah at the end of the first perek says that the Torah is

תחילתה חסד וסופה חסד. תחילתה גמילות חסדים וסופה גמילות חסדים.

Techilas gmilus chasadim, ויעש ה' אלקים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם, an act of chesed. And the end, vayikbor oso bagai, that Hakodesh Baruch Hu, as it were, is mikayem the mitzvah of kvuras hameis by burying Moshe Rabbeinu. תחילתו בחסד וסופו בחסד. The Gemara in Shabbos says when ביקשו לגנוז ספר קהלת that they were on the verge of doing so, but then they saw that תחילתו דברי תורה וסופו דברי תורה. So because of that they weren't goneiz sefer Kohelles. So my father zichrono livracha used to say, I think he was quoting from a sefer, I don't remember which, I'm not sure about that, that what would be if, say, what would be if he said if I would get up and I'd give a drasha for an hour? And the first minute was very good, a good insight, the last minute was very good, a good insight, and the 58 minutes in between was all gibberish. So that's really such a redeeming, so those two minutes is so redeeming. So what do you mean, so wonderful, so תחילתו דברי תורה וסופו דברי תורה? But it's clear what the Gemara is saying is that if it was תחילתו דברי תורה וסופו דברי תורה, so Chazal recognized that obviously we just have to exert ourselves to recognize that the entire Kohelles is divrei Torah, which is why clearly it was beruach hakodesh, it's part of Tanach, and and that it shouldn't be nignaz. Now the Maharsha doesn't, doesn't give that parallel, I think, I'm not sure, double-check, but I think the Maharsha there in Sotah says that there's something similar here by תחילתו חסד וסופו חסד, that if the Torah begins with chesed, the Torah ends with chesed, so there's an implication that all of Torah is chesed. What does that mean? What does it mean that all of Torah is chesed? We were learning this afternoon the sugya of modeh b'miktzas and it at first blush doesn't, doesn't seem at first glance to, to relate directly or even indirectly to the middah of chesed. So I don't know whether we'll, we'll answer that question adequately, but let's discuss a little bit chesed. I think there will be some overlap with some of the inyanim that we, that we discussed during chodesh Elul and perhaps we'll give an inadequate answer to this, to this question. The Torah says in Sefer Vayikra when it comments on an incestuous relationship between brother and sister, ki chesed hu, that it's a chesed. Rashi quotes Chazal, what do you mean it's a chesed? It's the antithesis of chesed. So what it means is that once Hakodesh Baruch Hu was matir this issur of an och marrying achose, he was matir it for Kayin and Hevel at the beginning of the world because otherwise, otherwise there would have been no way for humankind to perpetuate itself initially, were it not for the fact that Hakodesh Baruch Hu did a chesed and made an exception to this issur. That's how, how Chazal explain the use of the term chesed in, in this context. But what's the peshuto shel mikra? So the Ibn Ezra says that the peshuto shel mikra is that chesed doesn't really mean kindness, that etymologically what the word chesed means is something extreme. Something extreme, it can be הן לטוב הן למוטב. Generally we most frequently use chesed in a with a positive connotation, so we sort of then come to identify it with its positive, positive connotation. But in terms of what the word means literally, what the word means etymologically, it means extreme. And you find this in the, in the Rishonim as well. For instance, when the Rambam has in Hilchos De'os, the Rambam has two tracks. He has someone who goes exactly in the middle track, exactly in the, the middle track, he's a chacham, and someone who goes more to one of the extremes, let's say when, when it comes to balancing extreme asceticism versus hedonism, so the one who's... noteh, who doesn't go exactly in the middle, but who's noteh more to the ascetic end, so he's a chasid. And the Mesillas Yesharim says it also in the perek on chasidus that it means a person who goes beyond, a person who's goes lifnim meshuras hadin. He goes all all the way. So chasid literally means it means extreme. And that's why what the pasuk means chesed hu, the pshuto shel mikra the Ibn Ezra says, means that this is an extreme action of depravity, that it's something depraved. That's that's what chesed means in in this context. I think the Ibn Ezra there gives the the cross reference to the pasuk in Sefer Yonah where Yonah says in his tfillah that משמרים הבלי שוא חסדם יעזבו. So there's a machlokes in meforshim what that pasuk means. So meshomrim havlei shav clearly means that the people on the boat who initially before the big storm were a bunch of ovdei avoda zara, meshomrim havlei shav, they they focused their attentions and their religious worship on havlei shav. So now chasdom yaazovu. So there were two opposite interpretations that the meforshim give. Some say that Yonah is saying listen Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you know that their their devotion, their piety is going to be very short-lived. Chasdom yaazovu, all those nedarim that they made, they're not going to they're not going to keep it, all the kindnesses that they promised to do, chasdom yaazovu, they're going to abandon it. Okay, so then chesed, it doesn't really doesn't really alert us to any new use or or meaning of the word. But there's an opposite pshat in the meforshim as well, which is that chasdom yaazovu means no, that they that they were transformed by this experience, and chasdom yaazovu means they're going to abandon their avoda zara. And that chesed in this context refers to the avoda zara. So it's the same thing as what the Ibn Ezra is saying that I think the Ibn Ezra gives the the cross reference. It's the same thing as the pshuto shel mikra here by ach and achos that that what chesed means again is something extreme. In the context in which we use it when we say someone is a baal chesed, we mean extreme in a positive sense. But etymologically, it it just means in a neutral sense something which is which is extreme. The Rambam says the same as well in terms of what the semantics of chesed are as well. The Rambam at the end of Moreh Nevuchim has has the same comment as as the Ibn Ezra has al HaTorah. So that's what the Rav zichrono livracha with with this definition of the Rishonim resonating said that the definition of chesed, what it really means to do chesed is to do what strikes us as irrational chesed. Dehinu that when you have when you have a case where a person seems deserving of chesed, where the chesed is not especially taxing, so that's something that we would describe as as a rational chesed to do. Rav said that the true measure of chesed and the true measure of a baal chesed is a person who does chesed even when the chesed is is seemingly, obviously not really, but seemingly irrational. Irrational in the sense that the person is not deserving of it. Irrational in the sense that it's especially taxing, and and it seems that the inconvenience or the burden to the to the person who's gomeil chesed is disproportionate to the certainly to the worthiness of the of the beneficiary, that that's the true measure of chesed. Because that's literally what chesed really means is is not stam, okay, so what how much does it hurt me to give a to give a quarter to a to a legitimate oni, it doesn't it doesn't doesn't take too much of a too much of a bite. But to really put oneself out, again, when seemingly seemingly it's disproportionate, seemingly it's it's unwarranted, so that's the true measure and the true definition of chesed. What's the essence of of a baal chesed and and how does a person try to cultivate the middah and and train himself to be a baal chesed? So there is a very beautiful story that that that chasidim tell, I don't know whether it's associated with any particular rebbe or whether it's attributed to to anyone in particular, more of a generic maise. The maise is of of a rebbe who's giving divrei Torah at shaleshudis. And the divrei Torah are tremendously powerful, tremendously inspirational. And the chasidim are hanging on every word and they feel such a tremendous romemut hanefesh in in hearing the divrei Torah. A a boorish farmer pushes his way through and and the farmer says to the says to the rebbe, he he addresses the the rebbe in Polish, doesn't even speak Yiddish, and says to him in Polish with very speaks to him in the second person with a very kind of coarse or crass familiarity, says to him, my horse doesn't work the way it used to, doesn't pull the wagon the way it used to, what should I do, what should I do rebbe? So the rebbe says, mix a little sugar in with the oats and and see what that will do. Fine. So then the rebbe resumes the divrei Torah and it has the same mesmerizing effect on on the chasidim. Again, just as they begin to regain the momentum which which they had lost, which had been which this this this boorish farmer had interfered with, so again he says, so then he interrupts and says, rebbe, says, I tried that already, says, doesn't work, doesn't work. So the rebbe says, well then, I would check the horseshoes, maybe maybe the horse needs needs new horseshoes, when a horse, when when the horseshoes are not are not properly fit or they're worn down or something, so that's going to affect the the performance of the horse. Then the rebbe resumes the divrei Torah. The chasidim are are barely containing their their ire and anger against this this this the chutzpah which is being demonstrated by the farmer, but they're eich-she-hu to to restrain themselves. And the rebbe resumes the divrei Torah and then he interrupts yet a third time, he has one more follow up question about his horse, so at this point the the chasidim is kalu kol hakitzim, so the chasidim are ready to ready to throw him out and who knows what. At which point, so the as as the story continues, so the rebbe addresses the the chasidim, he addresses them in Yiddish to make sure that the farmer won't understand, so he won't be embarrassed, and he says, don't you understand what's happening? He says, you think that he's being chutzpadik and that he's and and that he's interrupting divrei Torah to talk about his horse, says that's not at all the case. What's really happening here is that he wants to have some kind of kesher with me, and he's not really interested in me, ultimately he's interested in the Ribbono Shel Olam. He says, so when you want to have some kind of a kesher with me, so you you you ask me for an eitzah or for hadrachah in avodat Hashem. You ask me a kasha on a Zohar hakadosh, you ask me a kasha on a on a Rambam, on a gemara, on on a Rashi, he's an illiterate farmer, doesn't doesn't even know how to davon. He says the only language he knows he speaks the language of the farm, he speaks the language of horses, he can't talk to me about anything else, but he's not interested in the horses, he knows I'm no no equestrian expert, what he's really interested in is is, again, a relationship with me, and not not for me, but ultimately to come close to the Ribbono Shel Olam. So leave him, let him ask whatever questions he wants to ask. What what's the point of the story, such a beautiful story? What's the point of the story? The point of the story is that the gadlus of the rebbe in the story is that whereas the chasidim sort of viewed and experienced what happened from their own perspective, standing in their own shoes, so the rebbe had the gadlus to view it and understand it from the other person's perspective, standing within the other person's shoes. And ultimately, ultimately, to be a baal chesed means to have that capacity, to have that capacity, and the the difference in perception, and and therefore the difference in attitude, and and the difference in terms of how one relates to other people is kerachok mizrach mimaariv, it's not like night and day. Over here the chutzpahdik farmer who was worthy of nezifah turns out to be a mevakesh Hashem who's deserving of all the encouragement and all the sensitivity in the world. Too often our chesed is very limited because if we only practice chesed from our own perspective, then we simply misunderstand and simply don't recognize so many opportunities and so many requests and so much need that there is for chesed in the world that we simply don't see because too often we view the world from the Chasid's vantage point rather than the Rebbe's vantage point. Understood in this way, chesed then means for a person to be an emestiker baal chesed. I think the Chazon Ish has a comment in ספר ענייני אמונה וביטחון. He says that if a person is really motivated by chesed, the example he gives is let's say there are orchim in shul. Orchim in shul. And a person wants, he wants to be gomel chesed, he's a baal chesed, he wants to be gomel chesed. So he goes, he runs over to invite them, to try to get them for the Seudah Leil Shabbos, or if not Shabbos day. And he doesn't get there in time. He was at a far point in the shul. By the time he gets there, they've been invited already. Says the Chazon Ish, if he's disappointed, then there's something flawed about his chesed. Because if a person is an emestiker baal chesed, what his concern is is that the orchim should have a place for Shabbos. That he should be the machnis oreach, that already injects himself into the equation. That already is not a pure chesed because again the pure chesed, the tzad hashaveh of this, the story with the Rebbe, is that pure chesed involves hisbatlus. It involves hisbatlus in the sense that the perspective on the world is the other person's perspective, not one's own. When someone asks us a tovah, our instinctive response is to sort of measure it by how busy we are at the moment or how busy we pretend or imagine that we are at the moment. An emestiker baal chesed measures the request by how vital and how pressing it is for the other person, not by how busy we imagine ourselves to be. So chesed in its fullest and purest sense involves hisbatlus. Involves a sense of hisbatlus. Again hisbatlus in seeing it from the other person's perspective. Hisbatlus in the sense that the chesed is not to make ourselves feel good, which when we think about it, the Chazon Ish is a very profound insight, often it is. Basically the Chovos Halevavos already says it. Chovos Halevavos says that the only real altruistic chesed that exists in the world is from the Ribbono Shel Olam. He says from people, says there's no such thing as pure altruism. That's what the Chovos Halevavos says. He says the let's say the most extreme chesed that we usually encounter in the world is the self-sacrifice that parents have for children. The parents don't do it anticipating, it's not usually done with any kind of a conscious cheshbon, oh when I get old, then I'll get my payback from them. No, it's done just for the child. It's done out of love for the child. Says the Chovos Halevavos, but at the end of the day, we have an instinct that we sort of identify with our children. We identify with our children. We see our children as an extension of ourselves so even though of love. The Chovos Halevavos says, which is what seems to be the purest and in a positive sense, most extreme expression of chessed, the Chovos Halevavos says, which is what seems to be the purest and in a positive sense, most extreme expression of chessed, and then says you can't really label that as purely altruistic either. The only pure pure altruistic chessed that we have in the world comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu does for us. So these two these two qualities, again, of seeing it from the other person's perspective, one's interest is not to feel good about doing the chessed, but one's interest is that the chessed be done with the other one, they converge in expressing the fact that chessed involves a sense of hisbatlus. Chessed also involves a sense of shefa, a sense of giving. It's the giving is facilitated by the hisbatlus. But of course chessed involves a sense of shefa as well. Whatever the person needs, whether it's the words of encouragement, whether it's a particular tovah, whether it's material assistance, whatever it is, but chessed involves a sense of being mashpia a shefa, giving. Possibly coming back to the Maharsha with which we began, that the implication of תורה תחלתה חסד וסופה חסד is that all of Torah is chessed. All of all of Torah, whether we're talking about Talmud Torah or whether we're talking about shmiras hamitzvos, certainly in its fullest sense, demands from us a sense of hisbatlus. The same hisbatlus which underlies and is manifest in chessed is necessary for all of Torah. In Talmud Torah, as the Rav zichrono l'vracha often often said, Talmud Torah means at the end of the day, to understand Torah on its own terms. Not by imposing any of our ideas or preconceptions, but understanding Torah on its own terms, surrendering to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, hisbatlus of our seichel to the seichel haTorah. That's what the essence of Talmud Torah is. And shmiras hamitzvos means surrendering our ratzon to the ratzon of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, aseh retzoncha kiretzono. It's also the case, as Rav Chaim Volozhin explains ba'arichus in Nefesh HaChaim, that everything a person does reverberates. Everything that a person does reverberates in the olamos elyonim. Rav Chaim Volozhin says that when the Mishnah says in Pirkei Avos, דע מה למעלה ממך, so in addition to the peshutam shel devarim, know what's above you, that there's an ayin roah, there's an ozen shoma'as, so Rav Chaim Volozhin says an amazing pshat. He says the Mishnah also means that da mah l'malah is mimcha. Know that everything that happens in the olamos elyonim is a response to what we do here, what we do here. Which means that when a person is m'kayem mitzvos and be'ikar as the Nefesh HaChaim discusses in Sha'ar Daled, when a person learns Torah, so there's a tremendous shefa in all the worlds. That's the effect of his learning. And perhaps in that sense as well, the תורה תחלתה חסד וסופה חסד implying that it's kula chessed, maybe it has that kavana as well. Okay, bli neder we'll continue.