Chesed (חסד) — Kindness, the first of the emotive sefiros

Core definition

Chesed is the first of the middos (the emotive attributes) — "the first middah by the name chesed," heading the triad cha"g"as: chesed-gevurah-tiferes [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 1]. It is the attribute of unbounded bestowal: an arousal of love and goodness that moves its possessor to give to another without measure. The early mekubalim, before the Pardes, called this middah by the name gedulah (greatness); only the later mekubalim named it chesed [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 1]. The verse "Yours, Havayah, is the gedulah" is read as referring to the chesed of Zeir Anpin, identified with ma'aseh Bereishis (the work of Creation), which stems from the chesed of Atzilus [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 1].

The name "gedulah" is explained through the verse "by day (yomam), Havayah shall command His chesed." The word is written yomam — with an added mem — because all the middos are called "days" (as in "six days Havayah made," the six middos), and chesed is "the day that goes with all the days": the middah of chesed is included within all the other middos. It is therefore called "gedulah," greatness, because it "goes with all the days" — it enlarges and sweetens everything it touches [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 1].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Creation from chesed. The maamar on "upon three things the world stands" explains the verse "for I have said: the world — chesed shall be built." The world's very coming-into-being was from "for He desires chesed" (cheifetz chesed, Michah 7:18): desire — ratzon — and the simple, essential chesed are the source of all existence [15893/maamar_019 :: ו]. Chesed is therefore not merely a Divine attitude but the reason there is a world at all: Chazal say "truth said: let it not be created; chesed said: let it be created," and the world was created in chesed [15893/maamar_019 :: ו].

Chesed as water. In the Kabbalistic image of the three "mother" letters aleph-mem-shin — air, water, fire — water corresponds to chesed and fire to gevurah, with the ruach (air/spirit) mediating and joining them [15893/maamar_019 :: ב]. Water's nature is to expand without limit, like chesed's unbounded flow; fire's nature is to contract, like gevurah's restraint. The same pattern is traced into the supernal root: the "skull" (gulgolta) above Atzilus is the level of Atik's chesed, the mocha its gevurah, and the avira its tiferes [15893/maamar_019 :: ד].

The arousal vs. the bestowal. A central Chassidic analysis distinguishes the middah of chesed itself from the hashpa'ah (flow of benefit) it produces. Below — in a human being — "through the arousal of chesed, he does his chesed to another": chesed is only the cause of the bestowal, not the bestowal itself. When Yackov was generous with his body, soul, and money — feeding and giving drink to all, flowing chochmah to all — the flowing was not the chesed itself; the chesed caused the flowing. If the ability to flow is absent, the arousal alone accomplishes nothing, "because there is here no drawing from the essence of the middah of chesed" [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 2]. Above, by contrast, in Atzilus — whose middos are "lights" even while measured garments — the middah of chesed itself is drawn, as in "sustains the living with chesed": chesed is drawn outward, within a vessel, from level to level [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 2]. And from the chesed of Atzilus was formed the chesed of Beriah, the chochmah and chesed of Atzilus becoming enclothed in the parsa [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 2].

Chesed and lowliness. Every Divine kindness demands from its recipient exceeding lowliness of spirit, for "chesed of the right arm, from which are blessed" is closeness to Elokim — and "all who are close to Havayah, and higher, Above and Above, must be lowly of spirit, below and below, exceedingly." This is "the right of holiness and the chesed of Yackov," whose response was "and I am dust and ashes"; it was also Yackov's middah [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 0].

Key distinctions

Chesed vs. rachamim (mercies). Both bestow good, but they differ in how the recipient is seen. The man of chesed sees every person toward good and does not see the evil in him at all — he finds in everything the good within it. The man of mercies, by contrast, does see the evil but has mercy upon the brokenness [31654/maamar_012 :: עמוד תפב]. Tiferes — Yackov's middah of mercies — decides between chesed and gevurah, receiving from both yet inclining toward chesed [31654/maamar_012 :: עמוד תפב]. Hence "Titen emet l'Yackov": truth was given to Yackov, the middah of mercies [31654/maamar_012 :: עמוד תפא].

Chesed vs. gevurah. The middah of judgment is "completely opposing the middah of chesed": the middah of chesed is not precise at all — it bestows without the agreement of the middah of gevurah. When the middah of chesed is awakened, it overcomes the middah of gevurah [31654/maamar_012 :: עמוד תפב]. The parable: the man of chesed bestows good since, in his eyes, the other is fitting of himself — the bestowal comes from the bestower's side, not the recipient's worthiness [31654/maamar_012 :: עמוד תפב].

Gedulah vs. chesed. Not two different attributes but two names for one middah, from different eras of Kabbalistic terminology: gedulah in the early mekubalim, chesed in the later ones [58837/maamar_013 :: Chunk 1].

Related concepts

Sources