Chen is the Hebrew word behind the Greek charis, which your English Bible translates as "grace." And the translation, while technically accurate, has enabled the single most destructive false dichotomy in Western Christianity: grace versus law. The church taught you that grace replaced the law, that Torah was the old way and grace is the new way, that Sha'ul spent his career tearing down what Moshe built. None of that survives contact with the Hebrew.

Chen means favor, the disposition of someone in power toward someone who has not earned it. Genesis 6:8 says Noah found chen in the eyes of ADONAI. Moshe pleads with HaShem in Exodus 33: "If I have found chen in Your sight, show me Your ways." Notice what Moshe does with the favor: he asks for more Torah. More instruction. More of HaShem's ways. Chen and Torah are not opponents. Chen is the favor that gives you access to Torah. Torah is the instruction that shows you how to walk in the favor you were given.

The Greek charis carries a similar meaning (unmerited favor), but by the time the Reformers built their theology on it, grace had become an anti-Torah weapon. "We are under grace, not law" (a misreading of Romans 6:14) became the operating system of Protestant theology. The KJV, ESV, NASB, and NIV all translate charis as "grace" without a single footnote explaining that the Hebrew equivalent, chen, never once opposes Torah in the Tanakh. Not once. The opposition was manufactured by theologians who read Paul in Greek without reading Moses in Hebrew. Chen is the favor that opens the door. Torah is what you find on the other side. They were always partners.