The prophet taught: What does Hashem require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Michah 6:8). We may ask: Why does the verse say, to do justice, to love kindness — why not simply, “do justice and kindness”? Why emphasize to “love kindness”? The answer is that while we all do acts of kindness, nevertheless most people do so with a sense of duress. A needy person comes to us once or twice and it becomes hard to evade the fellow, so… do him the favor. The prophet, therefore, came to teach us that what God truly wants of us it to love kindness. That is, it is not enough that we do kindness, we must love the trait of kindness.
And the reason for this is that there is obviously a great difference between something that a person does as a chore vs. something they do as an act of love. Whatever a person does with love he will do well beyond the basic requirement, as in what a person will do for his family’s food and clothing. He gives them not their bare necessities but an abundance—out of his love for them. So, too, the more a person loves the trait of kindness, the more he will actually behave with kindness and do more than his duty. He will also do it all generously and willingly.
