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DEUTERONOMY — 28:9 walk

DEUT1529 We are obligated to emulate God by being merciful and compassionate. This commandment obligates us to emulate God. That means that in all of our dealings with others we must behave with kindness and compassion, for this is the way of God. As our Sages have said: "Just as God is merciful and compassionate, so too must we be merciful and compassionate." (Chinuch 611). The Torah does not merely forbid actions that stem from cruelty and hatred. Negative feelings toward others are in themselves wrong. Our attributes should be like those that the Torah describes to the Almighty. If a person does someone else a favor solely with the intention of the filling the commandment of "Love your neighbor," this is not sufficient to fulfill the obligation of emulating God. Emulating God requires that it should become part of our very nature to help others. (Ali Shur, pp. 84-5)

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DEUTERONOMY — 28:9 ways

DEUT1531 [A niggardly person, who refrains from doing chesed, is liable to transgress:] (1) He violates the command of the Torah [this verse]: "And you shall walk in His ways." We are obliged by this overall injunction to follow the attributes of God, all of which consist in doing good to others, as Chazal have laid down (Sotah 14a): "As He is merciful, so you shall be merciful; as He is gracious, so you be gracious.," And so in reference to the other virtues as well. The Rambam has quoted the entire passage in his Sefer Hamitzvoth (No. 8). (The mitzvah of walking in the ways of Hashem is repeated eight times in Deuteronomy alone, as explained in the forward.) Whoever refrains from doing good to his fellow man, without just cause, transgresses this positive commandment which God has many times ordered us to obey.

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