DEUT1733 [T]he sages said that the three characteristics most important to Jewish character are modesty, compassion, and kindness (Numbers Rabba 8:4). Hesed, what I have defined elsewhere as "love as deed," (Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World (NewYork: Schocken, 2005), 44-56] is central to the Jewish value system. The sages based it on the acts of God Himself. R. 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" (Genesis 3:21) – and it ends with Him caring for the dead: "and He [God] buried [Moses] in the valley" [this verse] (Sota 14a). Hesed -- providing shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, or 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.