When the Jewish People left Egypt, the Torah describes their state upon departure with the words: "vachamushim alu" (Shemot 13:18). The standard translation of the word "chamushim" is "armed."

In translating the word "chamushim," the Targum Yerushalmi explains that the Jewish people left Egypt "armed with good deeds." This seems to contradict that which is stated in the Midrash Rabbah (Shemot 1:42): "G-d saw that they possessed no good deeds worthy of redeeming them. Yechezkel, as well, (in describing the deeds of Israel at the time) explicitly states: ... 'and you were naked and barren' (16:7) [i.e. bereft of good deeds]."

How can this seeming contradiction be resolved? Perhaps we can explain by providing other interpretations of chamushim, and finding a common factor.

The Mechilta's explanation of the word "chamushim" is that the people who left Egypt were only one out of every five – 1/5th, or one fiftieth, or one in five hundred (from the word chamesh – five), the others having died during makat choshech, the plague of darkness, since they were wicked ones who did not wish to leave Egypt.

Targum Yonatan ben Uziel explains the word "chamushim" to mean that every person who left Egypt went out with five children.

If we amalgamate all these explanations, perhaps it is possible to suggest that the good deeds that Bnei Yisrael possessed (mentioned in the Targum Yerushalmi) refer to their chesed in adopting the orphaned children. In the plague of darkness, so many Jews died, and so many of their innocent children remained. This also explains the Targum Yonatan ben Uziel that each person left with at least five children, since they adopted the orphans of those who died (a situation reminiscent of the post-Holocaust period).

A story illustrating this link between chesed and geulah is related about Rav Kahaneman zt"l, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevez, during a visit to South Africa in the year '56 to collect funds for the Yeshiva. At that time in South Africa, visiting Roshei Yeshiva were allocated one week each year during which time they could collect money for their institution without "competition." It was during "Ponevez's week" that the Sinai Campaign broke out. The South African community arranged a meeting of prayer in light of the situation and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Kahaneman, addressed the assembly. The Rav quoted the verse in Yeshayahu (1:27) that states: "Zion will be redeemed with justice and her returnees with charity." The Rav encouraged the crowd to increase its charity and acts of chesed, not necessarily to Yeshivat Ponevez, but to all Jews (even though by this he forfeited the Yeshiva's designated week – his only opportunity to collect for the year). Through these acts of chesed and tzedaka to the Jews of Israel, Zion would be redeemed from war.

This integral connection between chesed and geulah finds expression not only repeatedly in the history of the Jewish people, but also in Halacha. In the festivals of redemption, Purim and Pesach, we find halachot specifically underscoring this relationship. On Purim, we are required to give matanot la'evyonim and mishloach manot, and on Pesach, maot chittim.

In our own times, the miraculous experiences of salvation experienced during the Gulf War came at a time when the Jewish people were engaged in the "chesed" of absorbing hundreds of thousands of "olim" from the former Soviet Union. This surely verifies the principle we stated above!