DEUT543 See [[EXOD63]] Exodus 3:6 hid DORFFOV 38

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DEUT542 From this comparative sketch of other ancient faiths, Judaism emerges ennobled. Opposed to Buddhist self-extinction on the one hand, and Hellenistic self-expansion on the other, Judaism strives for self-elevation under the uplifting power of a Holy God. The term which the Torah uses for moral conduct is significant: [this verse]; (Sifre Deuteronomy xlix.); a verse which the Rabbis explain thus: "As God is merciful and gracious, so be thou merciful and gracious; as God is righteous, so be thou righteous; as He is holy, so do thou strive in all ways to be holy." [Continued at [[EXOD158]] Exodus 12:23 home LEHRMAN 27-8]

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DEUT544 According to [Judah] Loew [of Prague], human love for God differs from all other types of love. In love of God, one's love originally derives from God, the source of all. In other types of loves, love derives originally from the lover. Only in love of God does one love with the love which God has given us to love. In this regard, Loew wrote: "The love one has for God is not one's own but derives from God. It comes from God and one returns it to God. ... Love of God is more fitting than love of anything or of anyone else. For an every kind of love that exist between two lovers, though they may cleave one to the other, nevertheless, each retains their own individuality. However, in the love of human beings for God, one completely returns one's soul to God to the extent that one loses one's individuality and completely cleaves to God, as it is written, "to love the Lord your God and to cleave to Him" (this verse). This is complete love." Judah Loew, Netivot Olom, 2 vols. (New York: Judaica Press, 1969), "Netiv Ahavat ha-Shem," chap. 1, p. 39.

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DEUT545 See [[DEUT135]] Deuteronomy 4:37 loved OXFORD 40

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DEUT546 Even someone who has reached the highest levels of closeness with God is obligated to think about the welfare of his fellow man. The Torah tells us that even someone who observes all the commandments and has attained the attribute of loving God, must emulate God ("to walk in all His ways") in order to cleave to Him. Emulating God means being compassionate and bestowing kindness on others (see Rashi). One might think that a person who loves God need only devote himself to prayer and Torah study and by this means he will cleave to God. We see from this verse, however, that an essential ingredient in cleaving to God is caring about our fellow man. (Introduction to Ahavas Chesed).

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DEUT548 "R. Yochanan b. Zakkai and R. Yehoshua b. Chananya stood near the Temple Mount. R. Yehoshua complained: Woe to us! The place where our iniquities were expiated is desolate. R. Yochanan b. Zakkai replied: My son, be not grieved. We possess an equally effective means of atonement. This is gemiluth chesed, as it is written (Hos. 6:6): 'For I desire chesed and not sacrifice.'" Now chesed secures atonement as effectively as sacrifices. And the altar was never without sacrifices on any single day; therefore, since everyone sins every day, he is obliged to practice this virtue every day. We constantly deplore the fact that we have neither Temple nor sacrifices at present. Because of the multitude of our sins, our iniquities proliferate every day. Hence man stands in ever greater compelling need of this holy trait to secure forgiveness of his sins. Even when the Temple stood, the people of those days needed to strive after these holy virtues of goodness and kindness all the days of their lives, as the Torah explicitly states [this verse]: "For if you diligently keep all these commandments… To love Hashem your God, to walk in His ways all the days…" We have also explained according to the Sifrei that "walking in His ways" refers to the "acquiring of the characteristics of Hashem, may He be blessed, which are the ways of goodness and kindness." The reason for all this is, as the Zohar informs us, that man's days on this world have a permanence. From each day a spiritual creation comes into existence. And in the future, when the time arrives for man to leave the world, all his days appear before the Lord of all things to give evidence concerning him. Hence man must take care to keep all his days completely holy.

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DEUT550 We may also assert that the most desirable of all ends is for man to be worthy to remain in God's presence and to enjoy the effulgence of the Shechina. This is the true state of bliss, the greatest of all pleasures. Yet, whether man merits it depends upon whether he clings to God with all his might while he is still alive, as it is written [this verse], "To cling to Him," which means to cling to His attributes. Chazal have so declared: During all his days, man should urge himself on to acquire the Divine attributes, which are directed to goodness and kindness only. Then he will deserve to remain eternally before God and to "satisfy his soul in drought," as it is written, (Micah 7:18) "since He delights in chesed." This would not be true if his attitude in life was to be opposed to helping his fellow man, to act contrary to the ways of God. How could such a person deserve to be close to God in the end? This is indeed the idea expressed by the Gemara (Eruvin 86a): "Rava bar Mari expounded the verse (Ps. 61:8), 'May the world exist before God; kindness (chesed) and truth (emeth) shall sustain it.'

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DEUT549 See [[EXOD1022]] Exodus 34:6 compassionate DORFFLOV 223

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DEUT47 ... to refuse to care for others is to deny God Himself: “Rabbi Judah said: When a man denies the duty of lovingkindness, it is as though he had denied the Root (i.e.., God]” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:1, par. 4). Conversely, engaging in acts of chesed is nothing less than modeling yourself after God: “To walk in all His ways” (Deuteronomy 11:22). These are the ways of the Holy One: “Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness (chesed) and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin …” (Exodus 34:6). This means that just as God is compassionate and gracious, you too must be compassionate and gracious... Just as God is kind, you too must be kind...” The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His actions” (Psalms 145:17): Just as the Holy One is righteous, so you too must be righteous; Just as the Holy One is kind (loving, chasid), so too you must be kind (loving). – Sifrei Deuteronomy, Ekev. Finally, it is one of the three values on which the very existence of the world depends, as we learn in this famous passage from the Mishnah’s tractate, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), famous both because it comes at the very beginning of the tractate and also because in modern times it is often sung: “The world depends on three things: on Torah, on worship, and on acts of loving kindness” (1:2). (Continued at [[DEUT311]] Deuteronomy 6:18 sight DORFFWITO 19-20)

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DEUT551 One of the doctrines of the Biblical–Rabbinic tradition is the proposition that though God revealed in the Torah the path of life we should follow, it is we who make the decision to follow or not to follow that path. God does not make that decision for us. It is our divinely imposed, inescapable responsibility. See also Deuteronomy 30:19, Avot 31:9, 20.

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