At Mount Sinai, the Israelites made a covenant with God. He would be their God and they would be His people. But at key moments in Tanakh we find another phrase altogether.
Moshe says in the book of Devarim (7:9), “You shall know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps habrit vehaḥesed (the covenant and the loving-kindness).” When Shlomo HaMelekh dedicates the Beit HaMikdash (I Melakhim 8:23), he utters the following prayer: “There is no one like You, God, in the heavens above or the earth below, shomer habrit vehaḥesed (keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness).” Likewise, Neḥemiah, when he renews the covenant as the people come back from Babylon (Neḥemiah 9:32), says, “The great, mighty, and awesome God, shomer habrit vehaḥesed (He who keeps the covenant and the loving-kindness).”
That’s a really puzzling phrase, “shomer habrit vehaḥesed,” “the covenant and the loving-kindness.” Look, for instance, at the Jewish Publication Society translation, which translates it just as “covenant” because the Ḥesed is included in the covenant. If you look at the New International version (which is a very good non-Jewish translation), habrit vehaḥesed is translated as “the covenant of love.” But of course it doesn’t mean that, it means “covenant and love.” Everyone had a problem in understanding what God does for the Jewish people other than making a covenant with them on Shavuot at Har Sinai. But if you think about it, the answer is really quite simple. A covenant is what sociologists and anthropologists call reciprocal altruism. You do this for me; I will do this for you. “You serve Me,” says God, “and I will protect you.” Covenant is always reciprocal and neutral. But that is terribly vulnerable, because what happens if we don’t keep the covenant? The covenant is then rendered null and void.
The covenant is not enough. And that is what Moshe was saying, that is what Shlomo HaMelekh was saying, that is what Neḥemiah was saying. God does not just make a covenant with us. He has a relationship of Ḥesed with us, an unconditional love that is translated into deeds of kindness to us. The covenant is conditional, but Ḥesed is unconditional.
Maybe ultimately this is why we read the Book of Rut on Shavuot. The Book of Rut is the book of Ḥesed. We received a covenant at Mount Sinai, but we also received something much more long-lasting and profound, which is God’s unconditional love. And that’s what the book is telling us, that God has love for us the way Rut had love for Naomi and the way Boaz had love for Rut. Acts of loving-kindness all define our relationship with God. And as the Book of Rut shows, they should be what define our relationship with one another.
This message resonates for us this year. Just as in Megillat Rut, tragedy and loneliness and isolation are healed by acts of loving-kindness, so has the isolation of so many of us been healed by acts of loving-kindness, acts of neighbourliness, people being in touch, helping us, getting things for us, phoning us up, connecting us by Zoom, showing that they care about us. Those acts of kindness have humanised and lightened our world. Ḥesed has a redemptive quality. It transforms tragedy into some form of celebration and despair into some powerful form of hope. Let what Rut did for Naomi and what Boaz did for Rut be with us as we try to reconnect with family and friends, and those who have been so terribly isolated during recent times.
And may we remember that, as well as giving us a covenant at Har Sinai, God gave us a bond of love that is unbreakable. He will never abandon us. Let us never abandon Him.
☛ REFLECT
Why are laws not enough? Why do we need to also remember to be kind? How will you show Ḥesed to someone today?