Page 10 - HaMizrachiChayei Sarah AUS 2020

TORAT MIZRACHI

Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon Rabbanit Sharon Rimon

Everything Needs Chesed

P arashat Chayei Sarah is over- Chesed is something we are all bond develops into a sense of unity

flowing with acts of chesed:
expected to do or give, but it is also
throughout all sectors of our people.
2
something we all need to receive.
That’s just the way G-d created the Today, one positive side effect of
• At the start of the parasha, Avra- world. It might not always be easy to COVID-19 is the rise in opportunities
ham buries Sarah. do chesed but it can be even harder to to do chesed: helping people in quar-
receive it! antine, people who are sick and their
• Ephron does chesed with Avra- families, the elderly, those at risk,
ham by agreeing to give him people who have lost their jobs, etc.
the Ma’ara (even though Avra- Many of these people have never been
ham insists on paying him in a position of needing chesed. On
handsomely). the contrary, they may have even been
on the side of the givers up to eight
• Eliezer does chesed for Avraham months ago.
by going to look for a wife for
Yitzchak. We learn from Avraham though: even
a person of chesed needs chesed.
• Rivka gives water to Eliezer and
his camels (although he only Moreover, a person of chesed knows
asked for himself). how to appreciate the chesed he or
she receives, even when it may be
• Betuel and Lavan allow Rivka to the most natural thing in the world.
marry Yitzchak. A person of chesed knows how to
express gratitude to all those givers
• G-d does chesed for Avraham.
around him: parents, spouse, col-
• At the end of the parasha, leagues, employees, teachers, stu-
Yitzchak and Yishmael do chesed dents, etc.
by burying Avraham. All of the people that make up a per-

This list reveals a surprising thing: a We are not perfect and we are not son’s surroundings add something
large proportion of the chasadim in G-d. Even if we are able to help many to that person’s life, and part of the
the parasha are done for Avraham! others, we will always need help enjoyment of that life is to notice
The very epitome of chesed – ד ֶ ס ֶ ח from others. And in those cases, we that chesed, to acknowledge it and to
ם ָ ה ָ ר ְ ב ַ א ְ ל – is the person who needs it must allow those others to help us, express sincere gratitude to those who
do it.
the most! because true chesed allows for others
to do chesed for you as well! It enables
This shows us that everyone needs others to give and not just to receive.
chesed, even Avraham Avinu, the 1 Shown to me by my esteemed father-in-law,
“Man of Chesed.” The Midrash (Bere- And even if we don’t need to receive, 2 HaRav Blumenzweig.
1
See Maharal, Netiv HaTzedakah, 6.
ishit Rabbah) says: “Everyone needs we need to allow others to give.
chesed. Even Avraham, for whom The deeper mechanics is that when
chesed exists in the world, needed we allow others to give to us, we are
ֹ
chesed, as it says יִנד ֲ א ם ִ ע ד ֶ ס ֶ ח הׂ ֵ ש ֲ ע ַ ו creating a strong and meaningful con- Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon is Rosh HaYeshiva
ם ָ ה ָ ר ְ ב ַ א, “and he did chesed with his nection between us, and when we all at JCT–Machon Lev and Head of Mizra-
master Avraham.” give and enable others to give, this chi’s Educational Advisory Board.

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