Who doesn't love to do an act of kindness? In fact, even non-Jews will agree that an act of kindness puts you in a good mood and lifts your spirits. So we all love to do chesed. But do we actively pursue it? Let's say you just had major surgery and are in agony and there's a heatwave outside. What are the chances that we'll find you outside, searching for guests to house and feed? And once you find those guests, what are the chances that you'll jump up and run to slaughter cows, preparing the most expensive cuts.... Okay, no chance at all.
In the beginning of the parsha we find the tremendous midas hachesed of Avraham Avinu, how he sat outside in the terrible heat looking for guests to feed. It says in 18.4 "Yukach nu me’at mayim ..." - let some water be brought please and wash your feet and recline beneath the tree. Says the Midrash Raba 48,10: Hashem said to Avraham, “You said 'and recline beneath the tree to be protected from the sun', by your life, I will repay your children by sheltering them in the midbar, like we see the pasuk says "You shall dwell in sukas for seven days". There is another pasuk that when Moshiach comes they will be protected, as it says in Yeshaya 4:6 "and there will be sukos as a shade from heat in the daytime". We see from this midrash that the reason why klal Yisroel merited the mitzva of sukka is because Avraham Avinu invited guests and he sat them beneath the tree.
The Be’er Mayim Chaim (Parshas Chaye Sara 24,14) explains the difference between a baal chesed, one who performs acts of kindness, and a baal rachamim, someone who has pity. The gemara in Shabbos 104 says that a baal chesed is someone who looks for people that he can help. He can’t live without helping others. He is someone who always pursues chesed. And then there is the baal rachamim; he has compassion. He doesn’t have the mida to run after people to do chesed, but if someone comes over to him for help or he sees someone in pain, he will help him. A baal rachamim can't bear to see someone in pain. But if he doesn't encounter a person in need, he won't seek one out. He isn't looking for the opportunity to help as a baal chesed.
Avraham Avinu was known as the first baal chesed in the world. All his life he would pursue the opportunity to do chesed, to find guests to invite and to feed. That’s why when Eliezer went looking for a wife for Yitzchok, he tested Rivka to see if she is a baalas chesed and fit to marry into Avraham’s home. That’s why Eliezer said "If I say give me a little water to drink and she says I want to give not only you, but you camels as well, that would show that she is a baalas chesed. If she would just give me what I asked for, that wouldn’t show that she is a baalas chesed, it would show that she has the mida of rachamim -compassion".
Rashi 24,14 tells us "She is fitting for him in that she will perform acts of kindness, and she is worthy to enter the household of Avraham". Rashi says that someone who runs after the poor is a baal chesed, like Rivka Imeinu did. Not only did she run to help with what he asked, but she added to it and insisted on doing more.
Now we can understand why Avraham Avinu merited that his children received the mitzvah of sukkah for generations. The mitzva of sukka is a protection, to bask in the shade of Hashem, in the shade of Emunah.
The Yalkut Shimoni (Rus 602) brings down the following: Rav Avin says, "come and consider how great are those who perform acts of kindness. They do not find their shelter in the shadow of dawn, not in the shadow of the wings of the holy beasts... under whose wing do they find shelter? Under the shadow of Hashem! As the pasuk in Tehilim says 36:8 “How precious are those who perform your kindness, Hashem, these sons of man will take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
Avraham Avinu excelled in the mida of chesed, and he passed down this mesorah to us. In the z'chus of chesed, we were zoche to be protected in the shadow of Hashem through the mitzva of sukka. As a preparation for sukkos, we must exert ourselves in the mitzva of chesed - in order for us to sit in the tzila dim’heminusa, the shadow of emuna.
As a bachur, Rav Yitzchok Elchanan Spector was extremely poor. He didn’t even own a pair of shoes, so he was forced to learn at home and not in a bais midrash. One day, a bachur from a wealthy home was getting married. Rav Yitzchok Elchonon asked him if he’s getting rid of his old shoes before his wedding, and if yes, could he please have them. The rich boy yelled at Rav Yitzchok Elchonon, saying, "if you need shoes, go out and work!" Many years passed and Rav Yitzchok Elchonon became very famous. He once was travelling to Vilna to collect money in order to print his sefer and a man comes over to him and offers to cover the entire cost of printing. Rav Yitzchok Elchanan looks closely at that man; it was that very same bachur who years ago refused to give him his old shoes. Rav Yitzchok Elchanan told him, "I am sorry, but you missed your chance. If you would have given me your old pair of shoes years back, not only would you have merited the printing of this sefer, but you would have also have had the cumulative merit of all the Torah that I have ever learned".
A chesed doesn’t always have to be big. Sometimes, a small thing like a pair of shoes or a small loan can be a great chesed and have far reaching consequences. The main thing is to be a baal chesed, to seek those opportunities. We may not ever reach the levels of Avraham Avinu, but we do have the potential within us, passed down in our DNA, to be true ba'alei chesed. Instead of getting annoyed and feeling bothered, let's pursue the opportunities that come our way, for this is what we actually pray for – "ach tov v'chesed yirdifuni kol yimei chayai" – may only good and kindess pursue me all the days of my life. Commentaries explain that we are praying that if we must be pursued – let it only be chesed that pursues us, the opportunities to do kindness with others. Rejoice with each pursuit!
