
A Portion of
Kindness
by Rosally Saltsman
Bereishis
God created the world based on chesed. He created it to
give us a forum in which we could earn our reward in the next world. So not only
is chesed one of the pillars of the world, it is its foundation. We are meant to
use this tool, this gift of our world, to serve Hashem by serving others. The
world is full of pleasures for every preference; snow for skiers, hot weather
for swimmers, food for every palate, natural wonders to marvel at. Hashem gives
us the best working environment in which to do our jobs. But if we don’t use
this world to do chesed, we are guilty of gezel because we are enjoying the
pleasures of this world without fulfilling the condition that we use them to
bring pleasure to others.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. (Bereishis 1:1)
Hashem’s loftiness lies in the fact that although He
has created heaven and earth and rules over the entire universe, He understands
the individual needs of all His creations and treats them with kindness.
(Tightrope by Leah Fried)
God saw that the light was good, and God separated
between the light and the darkness. (Bereishis 1:4)
Rabbi Eliezer says that Ayin Tovah is the best
quality to have (Pirkei Avos 2:13). Ayin Tovah means a discerning eye but it
also can mean an eye for good. Someone who sees the good in people and can
separate the good from the bad, the light from the darkness, not only
contributes to a more positive world, but does tremendous chesed for the people
they do this for. We are all made up of light and darkness. To see the good in
ourselves and in others is more than looking on the bright side; it reinforces
our good traits and makes us better people. There are very few acts of chesed
that have as many upshots as this.
God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the waters in the seas; but the fowl shall increase on the earth.”
(Bereishis 1:22)
God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures,
each according to its kind: animal and creeping thing and beast of the land each
according to its kind.“ And it was so. God made the beast of the earth according
to its kind and the animal according to its kind and every creeping being of the
ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Bereishis
1:24-25)
Why is the
phrase “according to its kind” repeated so many times? The singular form implies
that God endowed each of the species with whatever senses and faculties it
required to thrive (Sforno) and endowed each with its own peculiar nature and
instincts (Minchah Belulah). Evolutionists argue that the fact that animals are
so different in different parts of the world attests to the process of
evolution. Emus are different from ostriches because the environmental
conditions are different in Australia than in Africa. Llamas are different from
camels because environmental conditions are different in South America than in
Africa or Asia and the platypus could only have ‘evolved’ in Australia.
Personally, I think the platypus is ample proof of divine creation,
because only God could think of something that biologically complex and
confusing. What all this species variation attests to, in fact, is God’s
abundant kindness. He gave every animal the exact climactic and geographic
locale that it needs to survive and thrive. We all know what happens to many
animals when they are removed from their natural habitats and how zoos go to
great expense and inconvenience to ‘recreate’ each animal’s natural
surroundings. God did this a priori and any alterations to the environment that
have led to ecological imbalances have caused the destruction of many species.
What do we learn from this?
On a global level, we learn that if we want
to do the world a great chesed, we have to protect and preserve what’s left of
our natural environment. The physical world God created was perfect. He created
it for us and any damage to the environment has repercussions on us. So if we
want to help future generations, we need to take responsibility for our global
village. There is much information about how to achieve this and everyone needs
to be doing their part to preserve and best utilize our natural
resources.
On an interpersonal level, people thrive in their natural
environments and when we buy someone a gift, invite them over for dinner or help
them pick an apartment, a job or a spouse, we have to keep in mind what is best
for their individual nature and condition and not what would make us happy were
we in the same position. Anyone who invites me over for Shabbos stocks up on
Coca Cola because I can’t get through Shabbos without it. If you have kids over,
you have to let them make a mess and if you have finicky guests, you have to
clean. Vegetarians need vegetarian food and people who are cold need heating in
winter. Keeping the needs of each “species” of your friends in mind is a great
chesed and will help ensure that you have long lasting friendships. Above all it
is Ahavas Yisrael. And God will see that it is good.
Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness.
(Bereishis 1:26)
God
made man in His image, that is, with His attributes and then gave him the world
to rule over. One of the attributes of God that we are meant to emulate is
generosity. God made an entire world and then gave it to man. We must understand
that everything we have is a gift from God. Nothing intrinsically belongs to us.
Therefore, we are meant to share the gifts we have with others. Niggardliness is
antithetical to Godly behavior and so it should be repulsive to us. We are
simply conduits through which God’s goodness and beneficence flows therefore we
should delight in being conductors of good whenever possible.
Why did
God make man last? Sanhedrin 38A states that it is because He wanted to bring
man into a perfect world. It would have been akin to inviting someone to a
banquet in a palace under construction if He had created Adam before the world
was finished.
When we invite people to a function, the time they are
invited for should coincide with when we are ready to receive them. Appearing at
a wedding when the invitation tells us to only to find the wedding party still
taking pictures and unavailable to greet us is uncomfortable. Likewise, arriving
at someone’s home to find them still in the early stages of preparation.
Whenever possible, we should make ourselves available to our guests as soon as
they arrive and make sure that everything is ready for them.
These are the products of the heaven and the earth
when they were created on the day that Hashem God made earth and heaven.
(Bereishis 2:4)
Behibaram – The letters of this word can be
arranged to spell BeAvraham, meaning that God created the world for the sake of
Avraham (Midrash), because he was the epitome of kindness, one of the pillars of
the world (Zohar). This suggests further that Avraham was the one who achieved
God’s purpose for the universe, because until he came on the scene, humanity
consistently failed to live up to its mission. That is why Avraham earned the
right to be the progenitor of Israel, the nation that was chosen by God to
receive the Torah (Zohar).” The reason the Amidah prayer says “Magen Avraham” is
because of the three pillars, chesed is most important. (Kotzker Rebbe, Iturei
Torah)
But of the tree of knowledge of
Good and Bad, you must not eat thereof. (Bereishis 2:17)
Adam had only one mitzvah to keep in the Garden
of Eden. Had he kept it, the world would have achieved its tikkun and he would
have merited eternal life. But we know that mitzvos are divided into two types,
between man and God and between man and man. This example appears to fall only
into the first category. But man is likened to a tree (Devarim 20:19; Shoftim
20:19 Ibn Ezra, Maharal on the verse). Also, one of the mitzvos in Ki Tavoh is
not destroying the trees when the nation conquers a city. Perhaps inherent in
this there is the concept of chesed as well. If a tree is likened to a man, then
taking from this particular tree that God had instructed him not to take from is
committing the sin of gezel, of taking from his fellow man. After all, there was
no one else in the Garden to steal from, no one else to harm. So perhaps God
used the tree to signify mankind and test Adam to see if he could withstand the
temptation. Inasmuch as the evil inclination entered Adam only after he had
eaten from the tree - in other words the feelings of lust, jealousy and honor
seeking (Malbim),-- we can assume that Adam didn’t have those feelings before
and had there been other people around, he would not have been motivated by
these evil impulses to hurt them. Since the desire didn’t come from within him,
God presented the prohibition as a temptation to defy His will. A temptation
which Adam couldn’t resist.
It is not good that man be alone.
(Bereishis 2:18)
There are
many people who suffer from loneliness in the world. There are people who, for
various reasons, are bereft of friends and family and there are people who feel
alone because they live surrounded by those they can’t connect with or who don’t
understand them. Relieving people of their loneliness is a great chesed. One of
the ways we can do this is by introducing them to others with whom we feel they
would get along. Just like God brought Chava to Adam, we can bring people to
each other and help them connect. This is especially relevant in the area of
shidduchim.
Often a small act can help relieve someone’s sense of
isolation. The following story illustrates this point and shows just how far
reaching a small act of friendship can be.
David (not his real name), a
young rabbinical student, once received a wedding invitation accompanied by a
handwritten note from the bridegroom expressing his strong wish and sincere hope
that David attend his wedding. While he recognized the name, David did not
remember having any special relationship with the groom. At the wedding, when an
opportune moment presented itself, David approached him and asked how he had
come to merit receiving a personalized, handwritten note with his
invitation.
“Because of you, I remained in yeshivah!” The bridegroom
explained. “When I first entered the yeshivah I had no friends at all and I was
very lonely. After I had spent a few weeks there, I decided to return home. On
the last Shabbos before I was to leave, as we were waiting in line to greet the
head of the yeshivah with the traditional Shabbos greeting, I felt someone
touching my jacket. I turned around and saw you – smiling at me in a friendly
way – adjusting my collar, which had not been lying flat as it should. It was at
that moment that I began to feel I belonged, and I made up my mind there and
then to stay in yeshivah – because of you!’
(Chinuch in Turbulent Times
by Rabbi Dov Brezak. Mesorah Publications, Artscroll p. 26)
And Hashem God made for Adam and his wife garments of
skin and He clothed them. (Bereishis 3:21)
The Torah
uses the same word, Kotnot for the garments God made Adam and Chava as it does
for the garment, Kutonet, that Yaacov made for Yossef. The garment that Yaakov
made was symbolic of the special love he felt for Yossef. The garments Hashem
made for Adam and Chava are indicative of the special love Hashem felt for them.
Rav Bachya comments that Hashem himself clothed them to show that He still loved
them despite their sin. For a chag, a husband is told to supply his wife with
new clothes. There is definitely a connection between clothing and love.
Providing clothes for the needy is chesed. It is also a chance to demonstrate
Ahavas Yisrael. The more personally one is involved with picking out, purchasing
and giving clothes to the needy, the bigger the chesed. We can extend this to
our own families as well and consider buying clothes for our spouses and
children as a way of showing them that we love them and want to protect them
since one of the functions of clothing is protection.
It is not good that
man be alone; I will make him a helper against him. (Bereishis
2:18)
Sometimes, the
best help we can give a person is to oppose him. A good wife tells her husband
when she feels what he’s doing is wrong. God told Avraham to listen to Sarah
when she told him to send Hagar and Yishmael away. When people are doing
something which is obviously destructive and we’re certain is not in their best
interests it is a chesed to point this out to them. Many people don’t like to
make waves, but often these very waves can save someone from
drowning.
The voice of your brother’s blood
cries out to Me from the ground! (Bereishis 4:10)
The word blood is in the plural here, intimating
that Cayin also killed all of Hevel’s descendents. When we harm one person, we
harm everyone else who comes after him. But the converse is true as well. If we
help someone, if we save his life or even do a chesed for him, we can be saving
the lives or improving the circumstances of all his future descendents.
|