Preface – 1
Blessed be Hashem Who is good and does good, Who does kindness with all His creatures—as it is written, He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His kindness endures forever (Tehillim 136:25)—and in particular with the Jewish People, who are called “Children to Hashem” (Devarim 14:1). And He commanded them to follow His ways, which are the ways of Chessed-Kindness, compassion and mercy. Not only in one place did He command us to walk in these ways but in eight places did He warn us about this matter. This is besides all of Torah that is full of these aspects of bestowing kindness, as will be explained below.
And again the Holy One charged us about this through His servants the prophets, as it is written: He has told you, O man, what is good! What does Hashem require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Micha 6:8). And all these things are for our good, because the more a person accustoms himself to act with kindness, the more he will later be worthy of receiving God’s outpouring of good and abundance of kindness in this world and the next.