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)