13 Middot

Sources

יהוה passed before him and proclaimed: “!יהוה! יהוה a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”

[God] said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation; and all the people who are with you shall see how awesome are יהוה’s deeds which I will perform for you. Mark well what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are advancing, lest they be a snare in your midst…

Exodus 34:10-14

§ The verse states: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed” (Exodus 34:6). 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 Himself in a prayer shawl like a prayer leader and showed Moses the structure of the order of the prayer. He said to him: Whenever the Jewish people sin, let them act before Me in accordance with this order…

Rosh Hashanah 17b:5-7

Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O my lord, pray, let my lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!”

The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.

Rend your hearts
Rather than your garments,
And turn back to the ETERNAL your God.
For [God] is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in kindness,
And renouncing punishment.

He prayed to GOD, saying, “O ETERNAL One! 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.

ה׳ ה׳ THE LORD, THE LORD — This is the attribute of Divine mercy. The one (the first ה׳) alludes to God having mercy on the sinner before he sins and the other after he has sinned and repented (Rosh Hashanah 17b).

Rashi on Exodus 34:6:1

§ Rav Huna raised a contradiction between the two halves of a verse. It is written: “The Lord is righteous [tzaddik] in all His ways” (Psalms 145:17), indicating that God acts in accordance with the attribute of strict justice [tzedek], and then it is written in the same verse: “And kind [ḥasid] in all His works,” implying that He acts with grace and loving-kindness [ḥesed], going beyond the letter of the law. Rav Huna explained: Initially, at the time of judgment, He is righteous, but in the end…

Rosh Hashanah 17b:2-4

Who is a God like You,
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression—
Not staying angry forever
Toward the remnant of Your own people,
Because You love graciousness! [God] will take us back in love,
Quashing our iniquities…

פקד עון אבות על בנים VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN — when they retain in their hands (follow the example of) the evil doings of their ancestors. This must be the meaning because in another verse of a similar character it has already been stated: of them that hate Me (cf. Exodus 20:5: Visiting the iniquity of fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me (Berakhot 7a; Sanhedrin 27b). ועל רבעים means AND UPON THE FOURTH GENERATION — It follows, therefore…

Rashi on Exodus 34:7:5-6

Therefore, I pray, let my Lord’s forbearance be great, as You have declared, saying, ‘יהוה ! slow to anger and abounding in kindness; forgiving iniquity and transgression; yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children, upon the third and fourth generations.’

Numbers 14:17-18

Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to Your great kindness, as You have forgiven this people ever since Egypt.” And יהוה said, “I pardon, as you have asked.

Numbers 14:19-20

So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as יהוה had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. יהוה came down in a cloud—and stood with him there, proclaiming the name יהוה.

But Moses said to יהוה, “When the Egyptians, from whose midst You brought up this people in Your might, hear the news, they will tell it to the inhabitants of that land. Now they have heard that You, יהוה, are in the midst of this people; that You, יהוה, appear in plain sight when Your cloud rests over them and when You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. If then You slay this people wholesale, the nations who have heard Your fame will say, ‘It must be because יהוה was powerless to bring that people into the land promised them on oath that [that god]…

Numbers 14:13-16

§ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Great is repentance, for it tears up the sentence issued against a person, as it is stated: “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and smear over their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and they will return, and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10), implying that if indeed they return and repent, they will be healed from all their sins.

Rosh Hashanah 17b:8

Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.”

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