Chesed and Ledarship - Rabbi Daniel Z Feldman

we already knew before we got to parshas or what kind of a person abram was we knew about his khasi about his kindness about his helpfulness parasha's viewer told us about it in great detail and so when we learned and pasha's kaya zora that he also took on the task of burying his beloved wife that doesn't come as very much of a surprise to us but what is surprising is a comment the medrush has regarding this particular act where we're told that one of ram took on this job the burial of his wife akaresh barakul declared of ram now you got it now you understand what it's like to know my ominous you know my craft of giving of hassan now you understand it's very hard for us to appreciate what the message is clearly abraham was involved in his whole life in so many ways that were so much more unusual and here to take up the kura of your beloved wife this is something anybody would do why is aram praised why is it identifying this as the proof that now we see he understands one explanation was offered by the who noted that perhaps this is in the vein of we know that burial is referred to as a hesitation ms as a kindness that one does without any hope of reward without any hope of payback there's not going to be any social capital that comes from this the individual being buried can't do anything for you maybe that's why this is highlighted as a festival ms therefore takes a unique place even among the resume of rama venus and the altar of subatra had another approach and he noted that very often people are very good at doing acts of kindness and volunteerism when it's for people far away when it's going to be flashy and it's going to be a great story and it's going to get a lot of attention but to fest it to those closest to us to those who are in our presence and to those who may need our help the most very often we're not necessarily aware and the fact that iframavinu was not only good attested to strangers but also took care of the one closest to him also took care of his wife shows that he really understood what he's about and this is very important we consider questions of leadership very often people are interested in doing good things because they're flashy or because they'll get credit because there'll be some kind of social capital that'll come from it but the idea of somebody who does what's right because it's right even though there isn't going to be any potential payback even though no one is going to notice it's not going to be considered unusual it's not going to put an award on his ball the one who steps up and does the right thing that's the true leadership and that's what's conveyed to us by the original leader of our nation [Music]