Very often the term gemilut chasadim is translated as acts of loving-kindness. It is used to describe everything from the work done by synagogue bikur cholim committees to service projects designed for high school students to lessons on how to treat a homeless person you pass on the street. The words gemilut and chasadim actually communicate some very specific ideas as well.

In one of the first adult education classes I was teaching on Judaism and service, a woman asked, “What does gemilut mean?” The dictionary meaning of the root g-m-l that is most supported by Talmudic usage is reciprocal acts. Gemilut signals that these are acts done in the context of a relationship with a built-in notion of benefit or compensation in return for the act. This immediately differentiates our tradition from those that emphasize the selflessness of service. The Talmud supports this, stating that that the reward for service is in this world, not in the world to come (Shabbat 127a). Service can and should be valuable in some way to the person engaged in it.

Chesed appears in the Torah to communicate God’s kindness and love toward humanity as well as human kindness and love toward each other. Chesed emerges as one of the essential ways humans engage with God to sustain creation. For example, in the story of Sodom and Gemorrah (Genesis 18:17), the 15th c. Italian commentator, Seforno, notes that the reason that God decides to engage with Abraham in discussion is based on the chesed that Abraham showed to the angels who visited him just prior to this in the text (Genesis 18:2). Consequently, Lot and his family are rescued by God after Lot has tried to show chesed, in the form of hospitality, to his guests. Human chesed here results in evoking God’s chesed.

The Talmud further establishes chesed as one of the core pillars of human behavior. (“The world rests upon three things, Torah, avodah, and gemilut chasadim.” Pirkei Avot 1:2) The term gemilut chasadim is distinctly post-biblical and occurs for the first time in the Mishnah. In the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkot 49b, a discussion is related defining chesed by contrasting it with the other fundamental Jewish value of tzedakah. Chesed is laid out as the broader value because it can be done not only with money, but also with one’s person. It can be given to the rich and the poor, the living and the dead. It furthermore states that, “The reward for charity depends entirely upon the extent of the kindness in it.” Rashi’s comment on this line succeeds in communicating the essence of their thinking. He writes that the actual giving of money or goods is tzedakah, and the tirkhah (the care, the bother) is the chesed. For example, when a person takes the trouble to give a poor person money in a compassionate manner and at a time when the poor person can use it well, he or she has brought chesed to the act of tzedakah. Rashi further states that chesed is when you give your heart and mind to the well-being of the poor person. Chesed occurs when there is understanding between two people and when the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is fulfilled (see Mishnah Torah, chapter 14).

Acts of chesed are the active representation of a covenant among people, a social contract. This, as noted above in the discussion about Lot, has the mythic power to actively engage God in covenant as well. This is not about simply getting a request in the mail for funds and writing a check, or bringing a can of soup to a box at your JCC or synagogue. It is not even about showing up once a year at the homeless shelter or soup kitchen or writing letters to Congress to effect social policies. Those are truly important, relevant acts, but they fail to engage people in relationships of understanding. It is when we become engaged with real people and communities on the other end of our giving of time and resources that we realize the covenental aspect of chesed.

There is much we can learn from these initial texts. On a practical level, a person who has received love and aid is far more likely to be able to pass on chesed to another person. Through acts of chesed (supported by tzedakah) where you treat some one like a human being, b’tselem elohim (in the image of God), with the respect they deserve, that person can be restored to the community. He or she can overcome the stigma of poverty, frailty, disease, or loneliness and can themselves become engaged, empowered actors of chesed.

The Talmud teaches (Shabbat 127a) that the reward for gemilut chasadim is in this world and also in the world to come. How can we begin to understand this? Emanuel Levinas teaches that the meaning of suffering is in the opportunity for the other to respond to that suffering, to embrace the sufferer and, through doing so, bring God into the world (The Provocation of Levinas, pg. 158). Suffering is meaningless for the sufferer. It only holds meaning when considering the perspective of the observer. The only meaning for suffering is the redemptive power it may have for the person who may bear witness to that suffering; indeed, our responsiveness to suffering may be our only means of redemption. When we respond to the other at a time of need, we fulfill our humanity and can find existential meaning in life.

Doing service, chesed, also can provide the opportunity to learn about someone different from oneself and the possibility for further questioning and exploration of social issues as well as values clarification. For example, for a period of time as a rabbinical student, I was visiting on a regular basis a 37-year-old man with AIDS. Not only did I gain tremendous insight into what it means to face death as a young person, but I also was motivated to learn about the politics of HIV/AIDS domestically and internationally. I became active in working to assure drug availability and began to give tzedakah to the GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis). This weekly experience of gemilut chasadim triggered active learning and engagement in multiple venues.

Multi-faceted learning can arise only through sustained service opportunities that are rooted in well-developed understandings between organizations and communities. We then begin to achieve the mutuality implicit in the term gemilut chasadim (reciprocal acts of kindness). There are then varied and wonderful curricular and programmatic opportunities that arise.

Whenever you face desperation, pain, poverty, or isolation, whenever you open yourself up to contact with these difficult experiences and meet individual people with chesed, you will be challenged to consider some of the basic ideas of your personal theology. How can God allow this to happen? Why do I (the volunteer) have the privilege of living, blessed in the world? There are also more mundane issues that arise, for example, in the case of the person living with AIDS, how to identify the onset of mental illness (which can accompany stages in the AIDS illness) and how best to respond at these times. Alternatively, how does one overcome feelings of physical disgust with some of the symptoms of illness? All of these issues and so many others can and should be discussed within a Jewish context, using Jewish and non-Jewish sources, including Rabbinic, historical and modern concepts.

Jewish service learning does not call for a straightforward curriculum of Jewish teachings on how we treat a sick person or our responsibility to respond to those who are hungry or homeless. Building on the volunteer experience requires an involved teacher able to locate and manage diverse Jewish and secular resources to support the volunteers and deepen and expand the volunteer experience. The volunteering time can thus become a springboard for expanding knowledge, theological exploration, and/or social justice activism. The Jewish backgrounds of the participants and their openness to Jewish learning will determine the beginning place and the program style of the learning.

Jewish service learning should serve as a time for volunteers to share experiences and build community together. For this to happen well, the coordinator/teacher needs to cultivate trust among members of the group. In addition, institutions need to model gemilut/mutuality in their relationships with partner community-based organizations to whom they are sending volunteers. The breadth of possibilities for how volunteer talents and skills can be applied will only unfold in the context of trust and developed relationships. An integrated program requires staff time beyond simply collating volunteer opportunities and matching them with people who call up. It requires a staff person who can build communal ties among diverse communities and assist community-based organizations in their volunteer capacity building. Such a program also requires building relationships with the volunteers and cultivating their leadership.

We need to create a communal consensus around the notion that volunteering is part of living a Jewish life. Chesed, like Torah Lishmah, is meaningful in and of itself, but it is also rich with opportunities for learning and connecting with community. In addition to being a prominent Jewish value, service is one important answer to the individual’s search for meaning and desire for true relationships in life. The Jewish American community has done a decent job of making tzedakah a central Jewish value - now it is time to embrace chesed. In doing so, we have the opportunity to bridge service and learning and to set a standard for excellent service programs.

Jewish Partnership for Service is a new initiative aimed at bringing the Jewish community and American Jews down this path. Please contact me at sara@jewishlife.org or (410) 366-4080 to let us know of ways that you are already involved in this work so that we can begin to connect current projects with each other and collect and promote best practices. We are also creating a bibliography of social justice programs and materials to complement the service learning materials and curricula that we are developing. Please join with us!