The Vengeance of Mercy: Judgment That Awakens

1“God spoke to Moshe and said to him, ‘I am Hashem.’”¹ The commentators, among them the Alshich, the Kli Yakar and the Ohr HaChaim, look closely at the wording. Why does the verse open with dibbur, “speaking,” which is a harsh word,² and with the Name Elokim, “God,” which denotes the attribute of judgment? And why does it close with amirah, “saying,” a gentle word, and with the Four-Letter Name, Havayah, which denotes the attribute of mercy?

2aThere are two ways to answer this. The first I heard from my holy father and teacher, zt"l. He based it on the holy words of our master the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, on the verse “O God of vengeance, Hashem; O God of vengeance, appear!”³ The difficulty is this: how can the Name Havayah, which stands for mercy, be mentioned with vengeance, which belongs to judgment? The Baal Shem Tov explained it with a parable. A king went out to visit the lands of his kingdom, and wherever he came, the people received him with royal honor. One day he came to a distant village whose people knew nothing of royal honor. Some boys there were playing with stones, as boys do, and they threw stones at the king and hit him. At once there was a great uproar. The king's ministers declared that the boy who had thrown the stone deserved only one sentence: death.

2bBut the king did not treat the boy that way, because he knew that the boy had no understanding of his greatness and majesty. He took the boy with him to the royal palace and gave him every good thing. There, living in the palace, the boy saw for himself the king's greatness and high honor, and understood that he had committed a great sin against him. So he went and fell at the king's feet and begged forgiveness for having slighted his honor and sinned against him.

2cThe same is true of the soul of a Jew. It is hewn from the Throne of Glory, but as it comes down into this world it forgets how exalted Hashem's glory is, and it ends up offending the honor of Heaven. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do then? He showers that soul with an abundance of every good thing, until the person senses against Whom he has sinned, and does teshuvah. That is the meaning of “O God of vengeance, Hashem”: the vengeance that Hashem takes, as it were, on those who go against His will comes through the attribute of mercy, by showering them with blessing and goodness. In this light we can understand the verse “God spoke to Moshe.” Hashem's attribute of judgment is itself “and said to him, ‘I am Hashem’”: it showers abundant mercy and goodness, and through these a person is stirred to understand against Whom he has sinned, and so returns in teshuvah.

3We can also explain the verse another way. The Yismach Yisrael quotes my holy ancestor, the Yid HaKadosh, zt"l, on the verse “From Heaven You made judgment heard; the earth feared and was still.”⁴ These are his words: “Judgment is not a way of governing the world in its own right. Its only purpose is to make people afraid through the rod that Hashem makes heard in the world, the message that there is judgment and a ruling rod to punish and to strike. When people hear of the awesome judgment, and they are afraid and shrink back and tremble in dread of it, then ‘and was still’: all the judgments and harsh forces are stilled, and the judgments are sweetened and lifted from them, for His intention is not to punish, Heaven forbid.” That is the gist of his words. In other words, “evil does not go forth from the mouth of the Most High,” and there is “only good to Israel.”⁵ It is only that at times the Holy One, blessed be He, sends judgment down below to stir people to teshuvah, and when they are stirred to return, the judgment is sweetened.

4This is the meaning of “God spoke to Moshe.” Even when Hashem deals with us in a way that looks like the attribute of judgment, it is only to stir us and bring us to fear. The moment we are brought to fear and teshuvah, the attribute of judgment is stilled. Then “and said to him, ‘I am Hashem’” comes true, and Hashem deals with us through the attribute of mercy, as we saw in the words of the Yid HaKadosh.

5May Hashem grant that we always be privileged to have Him deal with us through the attribute of mercy. Amen, may it be His will.