Knowing Hashem through Kindness, Not Only through Judgment

1“God spoke to Moshe and said to him, ‘I am Hashem’ …”¹ Why does the verse open with the Name Elokim, “God,” which stands for the attribute of judgment, and close with “I am Hashem,” the Name of mercy? The commentators, among them the Alshich, the Kli Yakar and the Ohr HaChaim, address this question. The Midrash says: “‘God’ refers to the Egyptians; ‘I am Hashem’ refers to Israel.”² But this is hard to understand, for at that time the attribute of mercy had not yet been revealed to Israel in Egypt.

2Let us first cite a Midrash as well, on the verse “Because Avraham listened to My voice and kept My charge …”³ The Midrash says: “Avraham knew even the laws of eruvei chatzeiros⁴ …; Avraham knew even the new name that the Holy One, blessed be He, will one day give Yerushalayim, as it is written, ‘Avraham called the name of that place Hashem yir'eh, Hashem will see’ …”⁵ This raises a question. With eruvei chatzeiros it is easy to see why Avraham Avinu needed to know the laws: they are a mitzvah, and he wanted to keep it. But why did he need to know the name of Yerushalayim? What does that have to do with avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem?

3aRashi comments: “‘I appeared’: to the Avos.” The commentators on Rashi, the Mizrachi and the Gur Aryeh, ask what Rashi is adding, since the verse says so outright: “I appeared to Avraham …”! My holy father and teacher, zt"l, explained Rashi on the basis of the holy sefer Be'er Mayim Chaim, by R' Chaim of Chernowitz. That sefer discusses the verse “We have become orphans, and there is no father.”⁶ The verse seems to say the same thing twice: if they are orphans, they obviously have no father. The Be'er Mayim Chaim answers, in brief, as follows. In exile, Jews are like “orphans,” because their troubles and sufferings are so many. Yet all their crying out and weeping is really only over “there is no father”: they have grown distant from their Father in Heaven. For they know that all their troubles came upon them because “there is no father.” See his delightful words there.

3bOn this basis my holy father read “I appeared to the Avos” as an allusion. It speaks of a power stored away for all generations. By this power we, the holy nation of Israel, will feel what we lack: we must come to our Father's table. We will feel and know in everything that we have grown distant from our Father in Heaven, and this is the beginning of the salvation. That is the meaning of “I appeared to the Avos”: Heaven wants us at least to know that we must return to our Father in Heaven. Those are his holy words. In other words, not searching for our Father is the greatest trouble of all. Rather, we must always seek out the God of our fathers, and that in itself is the beginning of the salvation.

4There are two paths by which a person comes to remember his Father in Heaven and improve his ways. The first is the one in the verse “Fortunate is the man whom You chasten, O God, and whom You teach from Your Torah.”⁷ When suffering and hardship come upon a person, he examines his deeds and recognizes the One Who spoke and the world came into being. This is the level of fear of punishment, and it is a low level.

5Higher than this is the person who remembers his Father in Heaven even when Hashem showers him with blessing and goodness, and he has plenty of everything. The goodness itself makes him remember his Father in Heaven and improve his ways. My holy father often quoted the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, on the verse “O God of vengeance, Hashem; O God of vengeance, appear!”⁸ The Baal Shem Tov explained it with a parable. A young man sinned against a king because he had no idea how great the king was. So the king took him in and raised him with honor for some time, and in this way the young man came to understand the king's greatness and how serious his sin against him had been. Hashem, too, deals with people this way. Even when a person has sinned against Him, Hashem does him good and showers him with every blessing. In the end the person himself is stirred to think: how great is Hashem's goodness to me, and how could I have sinned against Him? This brings him to return to Hashem in complete teshuvah. That is the meaning of “O God of vengeance, Hashem.” The word for “God” here is Kel, the Name that stands for the attribute of mercy. The “vengeance,” as it were, that the Holy One, blessed be He, takes on those who go against His will comes through that Name: He takes it by doing the person good.

6But to reach this level, remembering Hashem even when He showers a person with goodness and kindness, a person must cleave to the Creator. He must remember that “a person does not so much as bruise his finger below unless it is decreed upon him from Above,”⁹ and that it is Hashem Who feeds and sustains everyone. He must not, Heaven forbid, be like the people at Refidim who asked, “Is Hashem among us?”¹⁰ Only a person with the faith that everything comes from Hashem will recognize the goodness and kindness He sends, and remember his Father in Heaven. That is why only the Jewish people will come to recognize Hashem and cleave to Him through His abundant goodness. For the nations of the world, abundant good will not lead to better ways or to coming close to Hashem, since they do not recognize at all that the good comes from Him. All it will do is lead them to kick against Hashem, as in “Yeshurun grew fat and kicked …”¹¹

7aThis lets us understand the verse “God spoke to Moshe and said to him, ‘I am Hashem.’” It hints at the two paths we have described for recognizing the Creator: through the attribute of judgment, hinted at in the Name Elokim, and through the attribute of mercy, hinted at in the Four-Letter Name, Havayah. This is what the Midrash we quoted meant. The attribute of judgment is for Egypt and the wicked Pharaoh, since, like the other nations, they can recognize the Creator only through judgment. The attribute of mercy is for Bnei Yisrael, who can come close to Him through mercy as well, through all the good He will shower on them. Here Hashem was telling Moshe that from now on He would deal with Israel through the attribute of mercy expressed in “I am Hashem.”

7bUntil then Bnei Yisrael had suffered harsh bondage and great affliction in Egypt. That suffering was not meant to bring Bnei Yisrael to recognize the Creator. Rather, as the early commentators explained, among them the Alshich, the Maharal, the Shelah and the Chida, Egypt was the “iron furnace.”¹² There the souls of Bnei Yisrael were refined and purified of every kind of blemish, because of the various tikkunim, the spiritual repairs, that they needed. It was just as silver and gold are refined in an iron furnace to purge them of their dross.

8In the same way we can explain the teaching of Chazal we quoted, that Avraham Avinu was privileged to know the name Yerushalayim will bear in the future, and called it “Hashem yir'eh.” The hint is that Avraham reached this level: even when Hashem dealt with him through mercy and goodness, he came to fear Hashem. His words “Hashem yir'eh” hint at this, for yir'eh can also be read yir'ah, “fear.” Even through the Name Havayah, Hashem, which is the attribute of mercy, he attained fear. Avraham reached this by keeping the entire Torah, even eruvei techumin,¹³ and through this he was privileged to cleave to the Creator.

9This is what my holy father meant when he explained “I appeared to the Avos.” We are to reach the point of knowing that there is a Creator of the world. Through this we will be privileged to receive the attribute of mercy, as the verse concludes, “and said to him, ‘I am Hashem.’” Then we will be privileged to recognize His glory through the attribute of mercy as well.

10May Hashem grant that we be able to pray with kavanah, with true focus, and to do mitzvos with joy, and through this to cleave to Him. Amen, may it be His will.