I originally delivered these remarks in March 2019, in memory of my wife Neomi's dear Aunt, Rashel. When I asked Neomi what I should speak about she said חסד—because that was who she really was. From her years serving in a hospital in Iran during the war to her never-ending love for her mother, brothers and sisters and numerous nieces and nephews. When she was still a little girl in Iran her grandmother would prepare meals for her to bring to an elderly blind person in their town. She told my wife that more than anything, she learned from this experience how happy helping others made her. She lived to make others happy and she inspired so many people to follow her example.
What I’d like to explore is the meaning of חסד in the first blessing of the amida.[1] Specifically, what does חסדי אבות—the kindness of the Forefathers refer to? This question is difficult to answer because there are no stories [2] which explicitly feature the אבות doing חסד.
חסד is a difficult word to translate. It is often translated as kindness. However, it is clear from many examples throughout Tanakh that it is sometimes something more, sometimes something different and sometimes completely at odds with this translation. For example, in מגילת אסתר it probably means favor. So, I will do you a chesed and I will not try to solve the entire puzzle of חסד’s meaning right now.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks uses the word loving-kindness to translate חסד as it appears here in the עמידה. Clearly, he wants to convey that the chesed being referred to here is something more than the English word kindness can express.
In fact, the word lovingkindness was made up for just this purpose. In 1535, Myles Coverdale published the first complete translation of the Bible into English. Loving-kindness is a word that he made up to capture one of the senses of this word. However, it still doesn’t answer the question.
One of the earliest commentaries we possess on the siddur is from Rabbi Yehuda ben Yakar. He died at the very beginning of the 13th century and was a teacher of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban.[3] His style is to cite verses that he believes are the source for the phraseology of the liturgy—the building blocks the חכמים made use of. He writes in his introduction that when the אנשי כנסת הגדולה (the Men of the Great Assembly) composed the liturgy after our return from the Babylonian and Persian exile they said:
…let us investigate the words of the Torah of Moshe and the words of the Prophets when they prophesized from Hashem words of truth. And let us give heart to understand the psalms of David, the servant of Hashem, and the wisdom of Shlomo, the bearer of proverb and verse, the words of the sages and their riddles. And they all came like gatherers of fallen grain, gathering this from here and this from here. And they joined them into the tent of prayer with its boards and its hooks and its pillars and its sockets.
It seems to me that the Ri Yakar (as he is known) is saying that the key to understanding the tefillot is to understand its sources in the Tanakh.
I wanted to see if his commentary could give me any insight into my question about the meaning of חסדי אבות.
The Ri Yakar cites two verses as the source of this phrase. The first is from Vayikra 26:45:
וְזָֽכַרְתִּ֥י לָהֶ֖ם בְּרִ֣ית רִֽאשֹׁנִ֑ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר הוֹצֵֽאתִי־אֹתָם֩ מֵאֶ֨רֶץ מִצְרַ֜יִם לְעֵינֵ֣י הַגּוֹיִ֗ם לִהְי֥וֹת לָהֶ֛ם לֵֽא-לֹהִ֖ים אֲנִ֥י ה':
“And I remember for them the covenant with the first-ones whom I took out of the Land of Egypt before the eyes of all the nations to be their G-d, I am Hashem.”
This verse comes at the end of the blessings and curses at the end of Sefer Vayikra. It is a reminder that even if we fail to fulfill our mission and are cast out of the Promised Land and suffer greatly as a result, the ברית (covenant) with the אבות will always be remembered.
For more clarity on the meaning of this verse I checked what the רמב"ן, Ri Yakar’s student, had to say. He writes:
The meaning of “And I remember for them the covenant of the first-ones” is that Hashem will remember this for them, whether they’re in the land or in the exile alluded to here, and in every generation. This is the meaning of “before the eyes of all the nations”—Hashem will act on their behalf for the sake of His great name, that it should not be defiled amongst the nations, but not on their account, because they did not repent and they did not receive atonement for their sins. This is what our rabbis said, “I will not despise them”—in the days of Vespasian; “I will not reject them”—in the days of the Greeks; “to wipe them out, to nullify my covenant with them”—in the days of Haman; “for I am Hashem their G-d”—in the days of Gog and Magog.
The redemption of the Jewish people is intimately tied to G-d covenant with His relationship with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. But what were the חסדי אבות that were the basis of such an everlasting covenant? This question is answered by the next source Ri Yakar quotes from Yirmiyahu 2:2:
זָכַ֤רְתִּי לָךְ֙ חֶ֣סֶד נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ אַֽהֲבַ֖ת כְּלוּלֹתָ֑יִךְ לֶכְתֵּ֤ךְ אַֽחֲרַי֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר בְּאֶ֖רֶץ לֹ֥א זְרוּעָֽה
“I remember for you the (חסד-נעוריך) chesed of your youth, the love of your nuptials, your following Me in the desert, in a land not sown.”
This verse is referring to the generation of the wilderness, who, as Rashi explains, followed Moshe and Aharon from an inhabited land to the wilderness with no provisions for the way because they believed in Hashem. From the generation of the wilderness (the descendants of the avot) we learn the meaning of the חסדי אבות. The חסדי אבות refers to our forefathers’ willingness to follow Hashem—even when it meant an unsettling and discomfiting of their lives.
Avraham could have continued to live a prosperous life with his powerful and influential family in Charan.
Yitzchak could have abandoned his father’s wells and sought a comfortable life elsewhere.
Yaakov could have given up on his dreams and just settled for something less lofty—acceded to Esav, or simply give up on outwitting Lavan.
In other words, the חסדי אבות was the deep love our forefathers had for Hashem that propelled them to persevere and overcome all obstacles to fulfill His will. Perhaps a better translation of חסדי אבות would be the dedication of the forefathers.
From this vantage point we can better understand the next phrase of the תפילה:
ומביא גואל לבני בניהם למען שמו באהבה
And he brings a redeemer to their children’s children, for the sake of His name, with love.
Redemption comes to a people willing to enter the wilderness with all its uncertainties and dangers—for those who can put their faith in Hashem’s vision even when their own vision cannot yet reach that far. חסד, in all its many varieties, is a going beyond the self—an excess in service of the Other.[4] This is what Aunt Rashel exemplified beyond all else—may her memory be a blessing.
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Notes
[1] Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d and G-d of our fathers, G-d of Abraham, G-d of Isaac and G-d of Jacob; the great, mighty and awesome G-d, the most high G-d, Who bestows loving-kindness and goodness and is master/creator of all, Who remembers the loving-kindness of the fathers, and brings a redeemer to their children, in love and for the sake of His name. King, Helper, Savior, and Shield. Blessed are You, O L-rd, Shield of Abraham.
[2] We have a number of examples of חסד. But nothing about the אבות doing חסד.
1. The אבות ask for חסד:
a. Avraham from Sarah, 20:13;
b. Yaakov from Yosef, 47:29;
c. Avraham’s servant from Rivka’s family to do חסד for Avraham to find a wife for Yitzchak, 24:12,14, 27, 49.
2. Avimelekh requests from Avraham to do חסד in kind (21:23).
3. Hashem granted חסד to Yosef when he was in prison.
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