Ten Paths to God: #6 Chessed Love as Compassion

While tzedakah is giving with our material resources, chessed is giving of ourselves, with our time and with our hearts. Chessed is a critical element of the covenantal bond that he believes is at the very core of Judaism’s vision for society. A society that is founded on a social contract, concerned primarily with regulating power and justice, will have mishpat and tzedek / tzedakah as its core values, whereas a ‘society as extended family’ that is founded on a social covenant, built on the values of loyalty, fidelity and faithfulness, will have chessed at its core. To truly understand the values of chessed and the impact of chessed on society, one has to experience it. Thus, in this unit we have chosen to use storytelling as the primary vehicle for educating about chessed, allowing the student to experience chessed in an emotional as well as intellectual way.