Finishing the Judgments: Prayer Raised to the Mother

21Or we may read “And finish it to a cubit …” as speaking of prayer that ends harsh judgments. We begin by explaining the Gemara: “Whoever prays and says Vayechulu becomes a partner of the Holy One, blessed be He, for it says vayechulu, ‘they were finished’; do not read vayechulu but vaychalu, ‘they finished.’”¹ We can explain it this way. The tzaddik annuls harsh judgments by raising them to their root, and there they are sweetened. This is “Whoever prays and says Vayechulu”: the tzaddik who prays and speaks to bring the judgments to an end, lechalos, so that they are annulled. He “becomes a partner of the Holy One”: the Holy One decrees and he annuls.² “For it says vayechulu; do not read vayechulu but vaychalu”: the decrees and judgments are annulled, “finished,” because the tzaddik raises them to “the heavens,” as the verse goes on, upward to holiness.

22This is the meaning of “and finish it to a cubit above”: that you “make a tzohar for the ark,” that is, let your prayer give light like a precious stone, to annul the judgments and decrees against Israel. And by what means will you be able to annul the judgments? The verse says, ve'el ammah, “to a cubit”: ammah (אמה) speaks of em (אם), mother. The compassion on high is called “mother,” who hovers over her children and has compassion on them. So ve'el ammah means “to the mother above”: there techalenah, “you shall finish” the judgments, milemalah, by raising them on high.³