[Avodah] Chesed V'Emes

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 24

27 And he said: Blessed be God, the God of my master Avraham, Who has 
not forsaken His lovingkindness and his truth [Chasdo v'ameto] from 
my master! I am still on the way, but God has already led me to the 
house of my master's brothers.

Chasdo v'ameto Ahava (love) is an emotion, whereas Chesed is love translated
into action. When Emes is added to Chesed, the Emes is limiting, restricting.
Chesed v'emes is an act of lovingkindness that does not impinge upon the
truth.

Human love is blind. It tends to accede to the wishes of the
beloved, without regard to the true worth of these wishes. God's love,
however, is Chesed v'emes; it grants only those wishes whose fulfillment will
be truly for the good. In the case of God's love, truth is never absent.
Ya'akov, too, asks Yosef to act toward him with Chesed v'emes: "Please
do not bury me in Mitzrayim!" (below, 47:29). Seeing to Ya'akov's
burial is an act of Chesed; complying with his specification "but do not
bury me in Egypt" is the Emes. Thus, too, Rachav asks of the spies to
show her Chesed v'emes, kindness modified by a specification (see Yehoshua
2:14). Emes is the safeguard that ensures that, when an act of
lovingkindness is performed, truth, which is the essential thing, is not
lost. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20091115/a94dacd2/attachment-0001.htm>