Chessed Shel Emmet

Text by Rabbi David Hanania Pinto 

The month of Elul is at our doorstep, these are days of mercy and supplication as we prepare for the approaching Day of Judgment, the day we will cry out and beg our Creator: ‘Inscribe us for a good life, all the sons of your covenant!’

Rav Eizik Sher Zatzal explained that in order to merit ‘a good life’ in this world we have to keep those Mitzvot in which we specifically eat of it's fruit in this world – such as Chessed, kindness. Of particular power is Chessed Shel Emmet, true kindness, which is the type of kindness where the giver doesn’t expect anything in return. A kindness where the recipient doesn’t know that any kindness was done to him. Such Chessed is termed ‘Chessed for the sake of Chessed’, and it is through this that a person can earn himself a ‘good life’.

During the month of Elul there was a notice hung up on the front door of the Talmud Torah, which read as follows: “A king’s rulership is established only when his servants are united in serving Him, so the way to achieve ‘shetamlichuni Aleichem’ (you shall crown me King over you) is to form a united front. It is incumbent upon us to accept on ourselves that the entire year we will busy ourselves with loving our fellow. And that is how we will crown Hashem king. Let none of us say this is too difficult, because when a person gets involved in various ideas [of chessed] it will slowly become easier, and especially if one follows the path [presented in the book] Tomer Devorah."

Rav Simchah Zissel of Kelm told his students during the final semester of the Talmud Torah in Grubin, that the main Avoda of the approaching month of Elul is to make efforts to tolerate even those with outlooks and opinions differing greatly from our own. “This is our prime obligation this Elul” he instructed.

In a discourse presented by Maran Rosh HaYeshiva HaRav Ahron Leib Steinman, zatzal, during the days of Selichot, he mentioned that it is Hashem’s desire that each individual arrives at Rosh Hashana with the recognition that Hashem is king and that he wants to serve Him. The words ‘vetamlichuni aleichem’ (crown me king over you) means we must resolve to think our every thought through the prism of the Torah, whether in matters between us and our fellow man or between us and Hashem.

If we would stand back and observe the quarrels and fights going on around us, what are they fighting about? Why is it worth their while, what do they gain from it? Don’t they realize that for every ‘Vitur’ (concession to the other) they would reap enormous gains, as Chazal tell us ‘One who goes against his natural tendencies of character Hashem will remove all his sins’. And who amongst us would say we don’t need atonement… for there is no such thing in this world as a perfect Tzadik who has never sinned…

Those who stubbornly stand firm and insist on their rights, not giving in an inch, what do they gain? One must constantly ‘weigh the loss of a Mitzvah against its reward, and the reward of a sin against it’s losses’. When we think along those lines we will see right away when the calculation is not quite right. One must accept the yoke of Heaven in all matters – and when a person makes the correct cheshbonot he will only stand to gain, and perhaps even be saved from dispute, slander or gossip and other types of sins.. it is an unlimited gain. That is how a person should crown Hashem king over himself, and he will merit a good year.