Micah's Summary of the Torah
Micah's three-part summary of what God requires — to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly — is perhaps the most concise and complete ethical teaching in the Hebrew prophetic tradition.
Micah 6:8 contains what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called 'the most succinct summary of Judaism in the entire Bible': 'He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice (mishpat), to love kindness (chesed), and to walk humbly with your God (v'hatznea lechet im Elohecha)?' Three verbs, three values, three dimensions of religious life. Mishpat (justice) is the structural, legal, institutional dimension — getting the systems right so that the vulnerable are protected. Chesed (loving kindness) is the personal, relational dimension — going beyond what justice requires to give of oneself. V'hatznea lechet (walking humbly) is the spiritual dimension — the recognition of one's own smallness before the infinite. These three form a complete program: justice creates the structure; chesed fills the spaces justice leaves; and humility keeps the practitioner from mistaking their own view for God's view.
What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Political philosopher John Rawls's theory of justice — which requires institutional structures that protect the least advantaged — combined with Nel Noddings's ethics of care (attending to relationships of care and need beyond what justice requires) together approximate the biblical integration of mishpat and chesed that Micah declares.
Tanakh
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- What Judaism says about justice
Micah reduces the whole demand to three things: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly. Justice comes first, and it is a verb — something done rather than admired.