Chesed
All mitzvot entail conscious actions. Most weeks I seem to find myself reflecting upon what is going on in the world and attempting to find an action that we can take to improve the situation at hand.
This week, let us think big. As I meditated one day this week, I was invited to think about lovingkindness. I thought, how Jewish! Chesed -- I know what that is. But how is that a mitzvah in itself, or rather, how can we turn that quality into action? We often think in terms of acts of loving kindness, but maybe a very important way to look at lovingkindness would be to think about how we can extend kindness to those around us, particularly those we don’t feel particularly close to. Loving those we don’t especially like is close to impossible, but being kind is possible.
Small acts of kindness go a long way. Sometimes all that is needed is to simply pay attention to another person. And with that in mind, I invite you to pay attention to someone who comes across your path this week and greet them with kindness.