While we continue to be amazed by the giving, selfless, and astounding degrees of chessed that exists amongst our people, we should not think that this is a newer ideal that was founded in more recent time. Rabbi Sacks quotes a remarkable passage from a book called Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, that outlines the chessed societies that existed almost four-hundred years ago in the Jewish community of Rome.
Rabbi Sacks writes that, “In seventeenth-century Rome, for example, there were seven societies dedicated to the provision of clothes, shoes, linen, beds, and warm winter bed coverings for children, the poor, widows and prisoners. There were two societies providing trousseaus, dowries, and the loan of jewelry to poor brides. There was one for visiting the sick, another bringing help to families who had suffered bereavement, and others to perform the last rites for those who had died - purification before burial and the burial service itself. Eleven fellowships existed for educational and religious aims - study and prayer, another raised alms for Jews living in the Holy Land, and others were involved in the various activities associated with the circumcision of new-born boys. Yet others provided the poor with the means to fulfill commands such as mezuzot for their doors, oil for the Hanukka lights, and candles for Shabbat” (Essays on Ethics, p.30).
It is truly incredible to ponder that four-hundred years ago, before the days of technology, WhatsApp broadcasts, cars, computers, electricity, and the like (all of which make our acts of chessed so much easier to perform), the Jewish community of Rome was founded on so many different chessed societies.
Not for naught do the Sages say: חֲסָדִים וְגוֹמְלֵי ,וְהַבַּיְישָׁנִין ,הָרַחְמָנִים :זוֹ בְּאוּמָּה יֵשׁ סִימָנִים שְׁלֹשָׁה, there are three signs that identify one as part of the Jewish nation. These three markings, or signs, are: one who is merciful, one who is bashful/modest, and members of a nation that performs acts of chessed, one for another (Yevamos 79a).
Rabbi Sacks writes that, “As G-d acts towards us with love, so we are called on to act lovingly to one another. The world does not operate solely on the basis of impersonal principles like power or justice, but also on the deeply personal basis of vulnerability, attachment, care and concern, recognizing us as individuals with unique needs and potentialities ... (Kindness) is what led Eliezer to choose Rivka to become Yitzchak’s wife and thus the first Jewish bride. Kindness brings redemption to the world and ... it can change lives” (Essays on Ethics, p.31).
In a world of cruelty and turbulence, let us increase our acts of kindness one to another, with acceptance, love, care and compassion for our fellow Jew, so that together, we may indeed effect redemption.
שלום ושבת טובות בשורות בברכת
