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.