Gemilut Hasadim (the bestowal of lovingkindness), the most comprehensive and fundamental of all Jewish social virtues, which encompasses the whole range of the duties of sympathetic consideration toward one's fellow man. The earliest individual rabbinic statement in the Talmud, the maxim of Simeon the Just, mentions it as one of the three pillars of Judaism ("Torah, the Temple service, and gemilut hasadim) upon which the [continued] existence of the world depends" (Avot 1:2).

The first Mishnah of Pe'ah enumerates it both among the things "which have no fixed measure" and among those that "man enjoys the fruits thereof in this world, while the stock remains for him in the world to come," i.e., its practice affords satisfaction in this world while it is accounted a virtue for him on the Day of Judgment. This, incidentally, is an exception to the general rule that pleasure in this world is at the expense of one's spiritual assets. With regard to the former, the Jerusalem Talmud (Pe'ah 1:1, 15b) differentiates between gemilut hasadim expressed in personal service ("with his body") and with one's material goods. It maintains that only the former is unlimited in its scope, whereas the latter is limited by the general rule that one should not "squander" more than a fifth of one's possessions on good works. With regard to the latter, the text of the Mishnah mentions only "honoring one's parents, gemilut hasadim, and bringing about peace between man and his fellow." The prayer book version adds, inter alia, "hospitality to wayfarers, visiting the sick, dowering the bride, attending the dead to the grave." These additions, culled from various beraitot and other passages, are actually redundant since they are merely aspects of the comprehensive virtue of gemilut hasadim which embraces them and many other expressions of human sympathy and kindness (cf. Maim. Yad, Evel 14:1). Gemilut hasadim encompasses a wider range of human kindness than does charity: "Charity can be given only with one's money; gemilut hasadim, both by personal service and with money. Charity can be given only to the poor; gemilut hasadim, both to rich and poor. Charity can be given only to the living; gemilut hasadim, both to the living and the dead" (Suk. 49b). Thus, helping a lame man over a stile is an act of gemilut hasadim, though not of charity; a gift given with a scowl to a poor man may be charity; the same amount given with a smile and a word of good cheer raises it to the level of gemilut hasadim. Almost humorously the rabbis point out that the only provable example of genuine altruistic gemilut hasadim is paying respect to the dead, for in it there is not the unspoken thought that the recipient may one day reciprocate (Tanh., Va-Yehi, 3; cf. Rashi to Gen. 47:29).

Gemilut hasadim is regarded as one of the three outstanding, distinguishing characteristics of the Jew, to the extent that "whosoever denies the duty of gemilut hasadim denies the fundamental of Judaism" (Eccles. R. 7:1); he is even suspected of being of non-Jewish descent. Only he who practices it is fit to be a member of the Jewish people (Yev. 79a), for the Jews are not only practicers of gemilut hasadim but "the scions of those who practice it" (Ket. 8b). That gemilut hasadim is essentially a rabbinic ethical conception, is explicitly stated by Maimonides (loc. cit.).

During the Middle Ages the grand conception of gemilut hasadim as embracing every aspect of benevolence and consideration to one's fellow both in attitude and in deed became severely limited to the single aspect of giving loans without interest to those in need. It is not unlikely that this limitation was due to the fact that the main source of economic existence for the Jew was moneylending (to non-Jews), with the result that in lending money without interest he was depriving himself of his essential stock in trade. It is to this connotation of gemilut hasadim that the free-loan gemilut hasadim societies refer.

Siedlce, city in E. Poland. Jews lived there from the middle of the 16th century, occupied as innkeepers, and later also as craftsmen and merchants. In 1794 a Jewish school and the house of the rabbi were built there; the Jewish cemetery was enlarged in 1798. In the 18th century there was a small Jewish hospital; a larger one was erected in 1890. The most noted rabbis of Siedlce in the middle of the 18th century were R. Meir, author of Netiv Meir (19312) and Israel Meisels (officiated 1858–67) son of Dov Berush Meisels. In the second part of the 18th century the rabbis of Siedlce visited Warsaw where they carried out religious functions for Jews living there illegally. A group for the study of the Torah and Talmud was founded in Siedlce in 1839, and at the end of the 19th century a Bikkur Holim society was established. During World War I a Jewish high school was opened. Yiddish periodicals published in Siedlce included the Shedletser Vokhnblat, which Abraham Gilbert began to produce in 1911. Jacob Tenenboim, who between the two world wars edited the weekly Dos Shedletser Lebn with Joshua Goldberg, also collaborated with Gilbert. The lawyer Maximilian Appolinary Hartglas contributed to this weekly. The Bund started activities in Siedlce around 1900. At first the Polish Socialist Party also had a great influence among the Jews in Siedlce, but Zionism won the greatest adherence, though all shades of Jewish political parties were active. In 1906 the czarist Okhrana (secret police) organized a pogrom against the Jews of Siedlce in which 26 Jews were killed and many injured. In 1920 Siedlce was occupied by the Red Army, and after its recapture by the Poles anti-Semitic excesses occurred. The Jewish population numbered 3,727 (71.5% of the total) in 1839; 4,359 (65%) in 1841; 5,153 (67.5%) in 1858:8,156 (64%) in 1878; and 14,685 (47.9%) in 1921