Two Types Of Chesed

לרפואת ר' בנימין בן חנה

There is an awfully strange medrash on the pasuk רבות בנות עשו חיל ואת עלית על כולנה - many daughters performed valiantly but you exceed them all. This is talking about Moshe and Avraham who had an argument who is the bigger baalei chesed. Avraham said that I am a bigger baal chesed and Moshe responded "No I am greater. You fed uncircumcised people and I fed circumcised people. You fed people who dwelt in settled territory [מקום ישוב] while I fed people in the desert." One wonders how these two titans can be having a seemingly infantile argument as to who is greater.

The answers is that their argument goes much deeper and isn't personal at all.

There are two typologies of chesed. There is a natural chesed that stems from ones internal desire to be kind. There is a higher chesed that derives from the Torah.

Avraham was the pillar of chesed "תתן אמת ליעקב חסד לאברהם". But his chesed was a natural self-motivated chesed. Moshe claimed that one who performs chesed by the force of the Torah is greater. The proof is that Moshe fed people who were on a higher level [circumcised] and under more difficult conditions [the desert].

It is significant that the pasuk from which we learn the greatness of Moshe in chesed is talking on the simple level about girls רבות בנות עשו חיל, maybe because of the special connection women have to chesed. [That would require a separate post..]  

See Mei Marom Vol. 13 P. 124