Preparing for my Shiur in Hoshea, I came across an interesting aside offered by MaLBIM (Meïr Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser, March 7, 1809 – September 18, 1879) on Hoshea 6:4 :
O Efraim, what shall I Do unto thee? O Yehuda, what shall I Do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that early passeth away.
MaLBIM s.v Mah E’eseh
…Behold the most important thing that HaShem Requires of you is to do justice and to love Chesed, because it is most important that you do Chesed with people (and included under the rubric of Chesed are included the Mitzvot that are between man and God, in terms of “Chassidut” (piety) that are categorized as “Torat Chesed,” as we have explained elsewhere)…