DEUT789 No limitation has been set for the number (even if it reaches 100) of times the loans are to be granted. The person approached should not resent the inconvenience and be annoyed by the borrower pestering him so many times, coming to borrow or to repay, just as one never resents the constant visits to one's store of a regular customer from whom one profits. The lender should remember that each time he lands, he is fulfilling a positive commandment of the Torah. God's blessing will rest on him, since Scripture has given its assurance in a similar case of charity [this verse]: "Give--give to him (the repetition implying over and over again, even 100 times [Rashi], and your heart shall not be grieved; because for this thing, Hashem, your God, will bless you in all your work..."

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DEUT791 … if a person can convince someone to do a favor to a fellow man, this too falls in the category of chesed. The person will receive the blessing of Hashem, as we find in the Tosefta (Peah Chap. 3) -- that even if one only as much as told others to give, reward is bestowed on him. So scripture indicates [this verse]: "For because of this speech (read davar here as dibbur), Hashem your God will bless you..." See above (Part I Chap. 16) on the greatness of the reward for causing others to perform a mitzvah.

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DEUT793 Even if the solicitor is unable to contribute anything, and his only accomplishment is the encouragement of others to give, he too receives blessing from God for his deeds, as we find in the Tosefta (Peah Chap. 3): "Whoever pledged to give and gave, is granted reward for his pledge and for his deed. If he undertook to give but was unable to carry out his word, he will be rewarded for his word, as if the deed had been accomplished. He who did not pledge to give, but told others to give, will receive a reward for this, as it is said: [this verse] 'Because that for this word, Hashem your God will bless you.'" How much more will he be blessed if he also makes his own contribution, as we find (Avoth 5:13): "As to charity contributions, there are four dispositions:… He who wishes to give and wishes others to give is a chasid..."

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DEUT811 (I found an allusion to the worthiness of causing others to perform good deeds in [this] Scriptural verse: "Therefore I command you to say [to others]: 'You shall surely open your hand'" -- one should say, one should order and urge others to open their hands and contribute.) I have devoted considerable attention to the subject to demonstrate, for everyone's benefit, the great importance of arousing others to perform mitzvoth. All of this activity is included in the virtue of chesed. Yet people have the habit of avoiding the tasks of encouraging others to do mitzvoth even where the need is extremely urgent. As a result the mitzvah is not fulfilled. Such conduct is not at all commendable.

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DEUT938 … the intelligent reader will be able to appreciate that the holy virtue of chesed is of such supreme importance that the entire Torah is pervaded by it. How tenaciously should one cling to this holy trait and not weaken his hold of it all the days of his life on earth! In this connection the Torah states [this verse]: "to walk in His ways all the days"--meaning that one should not be satisfied with the occasional performance of an act of chesed once a month or once a week… It is also necessary to be familiar with the laws governing the exercise of this virtue…

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DEUT1036 See [[DEUT759]] Deuteronomy 15:9 base AHAVCH 116-7

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DEUT1034 (Continued from [[GEN1120]] Genesis 21:33 tamarisk AHAVCH 197-8) Let each person look at himself. Sometimes he builds extra buildings in his yard. He does not require them for sleeping facilities, but for less vital uses, and he convinces himself that these are a necessity for one purpose or another. So how can he then refuse to provide quarters for the needs of his soul? Now, if people individually cannot afford the cost, certainly the community is obliged to provide a hostile for wayfarers, so that they should not have to sleep outside. The community must also take care to feed them, and must by no means allow them to depart, God forbid, without food. Chazal (Sotah 46b) have remarked in commenting on [this] verse: "Our hands have not shed this blood," that it conveys: "He did not come to our hand and we let him go without food." Chazal have also declared that "had Jonathan given David two loaves of bread"… as we have explained in chapter 1. It has now become the standard practice in Jewry to found a Hachnasath Orchim Society which devotes self to the fulfillment of this mitzvah. Happy is the lot of these people!

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DEUT1035 After the guest has finished his meal, the host must accompany him on his way. Chazal have ascribed very great value to this mitzvah, declaring (Sotah 46b) that it carries reward without limit. They have also expounded [this] verse in this way: "Can it enter our minds that the elders of the Beth Din shed blood?--They meant to say 'We did not see him and dismiss him without food, and we did not leave him without an escort.'" Chazal have further asserted that if a person accompanies someone setting out on a journey a distance of four cubits, the traveler will come to no harm. Hence whoever fails to escort him it is like one who sheds blood. The community may compel individuals to escort travelers, just as it may force individuals to contribute to charity. Especially is this important when the guest does not know the way, and there are many forks and crossroads ahead. Then it is a great mitzvah to accompany the traveler and show him the way, or at least to give him such precise directions that he makes no mistake.

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DEUT1069 Burying the dead, besides being a mitzvah of the Torah, as it says [this verse], also belongs in the category gemiluth chesed. It is an even higher form, a chesed shel emeth, since no reciprocity can be expected here. Taking out the dead for burial, carrying the bier, joining the funeral procession, delivering the eulogy, and everything else done for the dead, involve gemiluth chesed. The topics are explained in the Torah portions of Chayei Sarah and Vayechi. Now see how important this is. Chazal have ruled (Mo'ed Katan 27b): "If someone in the city dies, all are forbidden to carry on their occupations." Now, if the deceased had relatives, the main duty of attending to his burial would devolve on them. Nevertheless the entire city is duty-bound to participate in the funeral. Hence all were forbidden to carry-on with their work. They were thereby endeavor to prepare whatever was necessary for the burial. (If the community has organized groups, each assigned a particular day for discharging these obligations, then those not on duty are free to continue with their occupations. Where the members of the Chevra Kaddisha have not been assigned specific days, but the entire society attends to the deceased, then they must all refrain from the regular occupations until their task has been completed and the coffin transferred to the pallbearers.) Even if the deceased had studied neither Tanach nor Mishnah, the rule applies: all work is prohibited. Torah study alone is not interrupted, as long as the funeral procession has not started, even if the deceased had studied Tanach and Mishnah. Once the coffin is taken out for burial, however, Torah study is stopped for one who was learned, even if the funeral is large, unless the number participating exceeds 600,000. Taking away the Torah (when a Talmid Chacham dies, his Torah departs) requires the same attendance as the giving of the Torah, which occurred in the presence of 600,000 men. Even the outstanding Torah scholar of the generation is not exempt from this obligation.

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DEUT1215 On [this] verse: Because they (Ammon and Moab) met you not with bread and water…," Vayikra Rabba (34) comments: "Did Israel need their favors? Did not manna come down, water gush fourth, the quail fly, the cloud of glory surround them and the pillar of cloud travel ahead of them during all the forty years?--But this is common courtesy: When a wayfarer passes by, he should be greeted with food and drink. How did God repay them their deserts? He forbade an Ammonite or a Moabite to enter God's community" (i.e. no male descended paternally from an Ammonite or Moabite proselyte may marry a woman of legitimate Jewish dissent -- Tr.). Here we may infer from the lighter to the graver case (Kal vachomer) that if one who refused to be kind to a person who did not need his favor was repaid with such severity, how much more so will a person be punished if he failed to extend kindness to a person who did need his favor! (Continued at [[EXOD162]] Exodus 12:38 mixed AHAVCH 106).

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