gevurah vs hessed

Hi All,

My orthodox (not Haredi) understanding is that every Jew has the right to be as religious as they choose – and adopt any stringency they choose-and this isn’t cherry picking in the Christian sense. Also because we have an oral tradition we don’t just follow the letter of the” old testament”. The real divide in Judaism is between lenient and strict interpretation of Jewish law.

Sometimes Sephardi and Ashkenazi are either or.

But on balance Sephardi are more lenient under the interpretation : ‘ koha dehetera ‘adif, “the power of being lenient is preferable”.

Ashkenazim tend toward the quality of “gevurah” or strength. They viewed halakhic stringencies as a positive expression of love of God. The stricter the demands of Jewish law i.e. halakha, the more self-sacrifice and heroism were entailed in fulfilling the commandments. In contrast, the Sephardim tend toward the quality of “hessed,” i.e. compassion. We view halakha as a loving means of serving God. Whereas Ashkenazim veered toward halakhic stringency, Sephardim tilt toward halakhic leniency. As Rabbi Yosef said: “The Sephardic rabbis are of the school of Hillel, tending toward hessed, and they do not have stringencies; they walk on the ‘king’s highway.’ However, Ashkenazic rabbis tend toward gevurah, and are from the school of Shammai who were strict.”

When Torah is divorced from life, it becomes an artificial construct relevant only to self-selected scholars who function within a narrow, self-contained society of their own and it was never given to us by God to be like that. It’s for all of us.