The Eternal
your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt”(Exodus 20:2) but also as “an
impassioned (or “jealous”) God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the
children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me
but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep
My commandments” (vv. 5-6). Moreover, God sets an unambiguous condition
forbidding the making of any visual image of Divinity.
There was excitement, exaltation and commitment,
but only forty days later, the whole deal falls apart. Their anxiety when faced
with Moses’s delay in returning to the camp causes the people to demand a physical
representation instead of an abstract deity. Aaron succumbs to public pressure,
and before long the people dance around a golden calf. Given the terms of the
covenant set at Sinai, God’s immense wrath is unsurprising. God’s immediate
response is a desire to destroy the people, and start over with Moses. Only the
courageous mediation of Moses, who demonstrates double loyalty – to God and to
the people – saves us and the punishment stops short of complete annihilation.
At this point, God realizes (as God also did
after the flood) that even divinely-created humans are unable to function as
God desires, and therefore it is necessary to moderate the terms of the
covenant:
The
Eternal passed before him and
proclaimed: “The Eternal! the Eternal! a God who compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending
kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin; but does not remit all punishment, rather visits the iniquity of parents
upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”
(Exodus 34:6-7)
Considering the people’s proven weakness, the
emphasis here is not on the Eternal’s
impassioned jealousy but rather on God’s graciousness.
At Sinai, “visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children” preceded
“showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My
commandments.”
Now “extending kindness to the thousandth generation” and “forgiving iniquity,
transgression and sin” precede “does not remit all punishment, but visits the
iniquity of parents upon children...” Moreover, God’s graciousness is no longer
limited to those who keep the commandments. It is now extended to all.
In addition to these verses' importance in the
Yom Kippur service (we’ll get back to that), they are quoted within the Bible
more than any others. Already after the negative report of the spies,
Moses repeats God’s words back to God as a prayer for mercy. It works, and God
replies, “I have forgiven according to your words.”
Jonah, whose story we read on Yom Kippur
afternoon, also quotes the 13 Attributes in prayer, but Jonah prays not out of
compassion but out of anger: “Isn’t this just what I said when I was still in
my own country? That is why I fled beforehand to
Tarshish. For I know that You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,
abounding in kindness, renouncing punishment.” God’s compassionate, forgiving
nature infuriates Jonah who omits a key word “אמת truth” when quoting God’s self-definition back
to God. For Jonah, “truth” is strict justice, and he cannot bear the thought of
sin going unpunished. The divine effort to balance justice and compassion doesn’t
interest him. God has a different perspective. God already understands that the
world can’t exist without divine mercy, and pardons the Ninevites, humans and
animals alike.
Psalm 145 (verses 8-9) confirms the expansion of God’s grace: “The Eternal is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. The Eternal is good to all, and God’s mercy is upon all of God’s works.”
The expansion of God’s grace serves as the
backdrop for far-reaching statements by Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Yehuda:
Rabbi
Yoḥanan said: Were it not explicitly written in the verse, it would be
impossible to say this, as it would be insulting to God’s honor. The verse
teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, wrapped Godself in a prayer shawl
like a prayer leader and showed Moses the structure of the order of the prayer.
He said to him: Every time the Jewish people sin, let them act before Me
in accordance with this order, and I will forgive them. The Eternal, the Eternal” for I am God before and after a person sins and
does repents, because God is always merciful and gracious.
Rabbi Yehuda said: A covenant made with the
thirteen attributes will not return empty.
(emphasis
SMZ; Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17b).
On the basis of these statements, Exodus 34:6-7a
become the foundation upon which the Seliḥot prayers for forgiveness are
built, and we return to them repeatedly. The words in bold seemingly promise
that reciting these 13 Attributes together, in praying community, will always
lead to the desired result, our sins will be forgiven and everything will be
fine. Life experience teaches otherwise. One who knew this well, Rabbi Avraham
Saba, who was exiled by the Spanish Inquisition, explains the gap between
promise and reality:
We often see many times that we wrap ourselves
in a tallit and are not answered.
Rather, the divine will is that whenever Israel acts according to this
list of God’s deeds, are compassionate and kind to the poor, are patient and
loving with one another, and forego their right to
punish, etc., then they are promised that the attributes will not return empty-handed.
(emphasis
SMZ, Tzror Hamor on Exodus 34:5).
Reciting the 13 Attributes is not meant only to
awaken God’s mercy in heaven but also to internalize them so we can realize
them on earth.
But Rabbi Saba doesn’t completely solve the
problem. Not only during the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust, but in every
generation, good, kind, giving people – individuals and communities – have met
a bitter end, despite the good they have done in the world and their sincere
prayers.
I suggest that we understand Rav Yehuda
differently. “Will not return empty” doesn’t promise that all prayers will be
answered. A human can’t make that promise for God. Rather acts of kindness,
compassion and patience will always bring relief, no matter how fleeting, to
the people receiving them, and therefore they are never empty.
For further analysis and sources, see Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, the Tanach Study Center, on Exodus 34, and on Slichot, and Rabbi Shai Held, Hadar Institute, on Exodus 34, and on later usage.
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