Avraham Avinu stands out in the Torah for two qualities. He is known for his Emunah in Hashem and his chesed. Avraham is referred to as the Rosh Ha’maminim the first of all believers. Avraham brought Monotheism to the world. He rediscovered Hashem when the world was thoroughly steeped in paganism and idol worship. He is called Avraham ha’ivri because he was on one side, the side of Hashem and the rest of the world was on the other side, against him and Hashem. The other thing Avraham is known for is his chesed. Avraham was and is the paragon of chesed and to this day we reference the cheesed Avraham in davening. What is interesting though, is that the Torah doesn’t really describe Avraham’s Emunah and his efforts to discover Hashem and convince people to believe in Hashem. The Torah seems to focus much more on his chesed. Avrohom enters on to the scene in the Torah at age 75. Already at this point, he had discovered Hashem’s presence in the world, worked to undermine his idol worshiping father by destroying his idols and was saved from a fiery furnace to hold true to his belief in Hashem. But we only know these stories from Medrashim and commentaries. While on the other hand there are many stories of Avraham’s chesed in the Torah. From his waging war to save Lot, to his royal treatment of the visiting angels and his prayers on behalf of the wicked people of Sedom. The Torah clearly goes out its way to make sure we know all about how much of a bal chesed Avraham was. It would seem that recording the stories of Avraham’s faith in Hashem should be equally if not more important and should have been included in the written text of the Torah?
The Alter of Slabodka explains that the stories of Avraham’s chesed and his belief in Hashem are actually one and the same and by detailing one we include the other. How can this be? It would seem that someone could be a nice person and do chesed but not believe in Hashem and vice versa, just because someone believes in Hashem why do they need to be a bal chesed? Chazal teaches us that Avraham discovered Hashem by looking at the world and seeing Hashem’s chesed. He looked around the world and realized that the world is full of chesed. He saw the sunshine bringing warmth to the world, rain bringing sustenance to the earth and so on down to every minute detail in the physical world that allows life to flourish. He understood that the chesed that is in the world must have a source, which is Hashem. He further reasoned that we, as Hashem’s creations, should emulate His ways and be ba’alei chesed as well. He then spent the rest of his life spreading that realization to the world. But these were not two separate missions he took upon himself, to spread the idea that there is a creator of the world, and that we should also be kind. They were the same mission, which was to understand Hashem and His essence which is chesed. When one truly understands Hashem’s pure and selfless kindness, he feels compelled to follow in Hashem’s footsteps and pass that goodness on to the people around him. This is how Avraham conducted himself in the world, every moment striving to connect to hashem. Sometimes it led him to be thrown into a fiery furnace and sometimes it led him to entertain guests but at all times the goal was connection to Hashem. So, in truth when the Torah teaches us about Avraham’s chesed it is also teaching us about the oneness of Hashem. If we look into Avraham’s actions, see his motivations and understand the true depth of Hashem’s kindness we too can come to the realization of the greatness of Hashem.
We see this idea confirmed by Hashem Himself many years later when Moshe Rabeinu asks Hashem to reveal himself to him. Hashem responds by revealing to Moshe the 13 attributes of mercy of Hashem which details Hashem’s kindness. What Hashem was teaching Moshe and us is that in order to connect to Hashem we need to become Balei chesed like Him. We mortal humans on earth cannot comprehend Hashem’s holiness and greatness but Hashem has left us a path to connect to Him and the Torah, and it is through chesed. By recognizing Hashem’s chesed in the world and striving to emulate it in our own lives, then, and only then, have the ability to connect to Hashem.
We can now understand the medrash in bereshis rabba which says that one who denies the importance of chesed, is as if he denies the existence of Hashem himself. We learned from Avraham Avinu many years ago that our relationship with Hashem in this world is inextricably linked to understanding and emulating Hashem’s chesed. Without this we have no chance of properly serving Hashem. We can learn all the Torah we want and daven and do mitzvot all day but if we don’t have chesed we have missed the essential aspect of connecting it all to Hashem.
The Alter also gives us a practical suggestion of how to use this idea in our daily lives. The Medrash says we should ask ourselves when will our actions reach those of our ancestors. Meaning to say that we should always strive to reach the level of chesed of the Avos. However, this goal seems out of reach, even on the best of days we wouldn’t slaughter a whole cow for one guest as Avraham did for 3 total strangers. It doesn’t seem likely that we will ever be able to match the acts of chesed that Avraham performed. The Alter points out that this is not true and in fact we can do this every day. He explains that the greatness of the chesed of Avraham was that it was rooted in his understanding of the greatness of Hashem’s chesed. That is how he was able to take his chesed so far, because he had such a deep understanding of Hashem. But the Alter explains that we too can do chesed from an understanding of Hashem’s kindness on our level and this is in fact reaching the level of Avraham. The Alter explains that when we do something as simple as wishing someone a good morning, if we include in that interaction the thought of all the good Hashem has done for us and that we want to emulate Hashem by genuinely giving encouragement to another person just as Hashem has encouraged us, we have transformed our actions. We have taken what seems like a mundane act and imbued Hashem essence into and channeled the greatness of our forefather Avraham Avinu. The idea is that it is not the pure act alone but rather the thought and feeling that goes into it as well. If we strive to emulate Hashem and look to do acts of goodness for other people purely for the sake of their benefit just as Hashem does for us, we will be able to reach the level of the Avot and strengthen our connection to Hashem.