We are now in chodesh Elul – a month dedicated to preparation for the coming yamim noraim – Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.
Sephardic communities have the custom to begin saying selichot – prayers of penitence – at the beginning of the month of Elul, and Ashkenazic communities begin saying selichot closer to Rosh HaShana. One of the hallmarks of the selichot prayers is the recitation of the shelosh esre middot, Hashem’s thirteen traits of mercy. Hashem taught these traits to Moshe in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf and instructed him to recite them when praying to Hashem for mercy. The Torah describes these traits in a verse in parashat Ki Tissa in Sefer Shemot:
“Hashem, Hashem. Merciful and gracious G-d, long-suffering and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Keeping kindness to the thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And wipe away, He will not wipe away, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third generation and until the fourth generation.”
One of these traits is chanun – Hashem acts with graciousness or favor. Indeed, our prayers regularly refer to the graciousness or favor with which Hashem acts. Some examples include:
The daily amidah – ata chonen le’adam da’at – You favor man with perception.
Also, in the amidah – chonenu ve’anenu u’shma tefilatenu – be gracious and answer us and hear our prayer.
Ya’ale ve’yavo – the special addition for holidays – choos ve’chonenu – spare us and favor us.
Birkat kohanim – ye’ere Hashem panav elecha vichuneka – Hashem will shine His countenance upon you and be gracious unto you.
In each of these cases, the statement regarding what Hashem has given us or the request for Hashem to give us something is qualified by Hashem’s favor for us. Why do we include the qualification that Hashem should favor us or be gracious to us in these and in similar types of cases?
What is graciousness?
In Tehilim, King David elaborates on a plea for G-d to act with graciousness towards us. He says, “Behold, like the servants’ eyes look to the hand of their master; as the maidens’ eyes look toward the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look toward Hashem until He is gracious to us.” What an interesting verse! In his sefer, Beis HaLevi, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik seeks to understand the connection between a servant looking to the hand of the master and our looking to Hashem for graciousness. In a passage just prior to the one quoted above, there is a momentous exchange between Moshe and the Almighty. Moshe is pleading on behalf of the Jewish people.
Moshe says to Hashem, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people (to the Land of Israel)’; and You did not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet, You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in My eyes’. Now therefore, I beseech You, if I have found favor in Your eyes, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find favor in Your eyes; and consider that this nation is Your people.” And Hashem said, “My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.” And Moshe said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with me, do not bring us out from here. For where shall it be known here that I and Your people have found favor in Your eyes? Is it not in that You go with us that we are distinct, I and Your people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?” And Hashem said to Moshe, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in My eyes and I know you by name.” And Moshe said, “I beseech You, show me Your glory.” And Hashem said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the Name of G-d before you; and will show favor to whom I will show favor and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
In summary, Moshe pleads to Hashem for two things: that G-d should show His way to Moshe and that G-d should consider the Jewish people as His people. Hashem grants these requests because Moshe found favor in G-d’s eyes. Moshe then pleads that Hashem should show him His glory and Hashem responds that He will make all of His goodness pass before Moshe and that He will show favor to who I will show favor and will show mercy on whom He will show mercy.
What does this final statement add? What does it mean that G-d will show favor to whom He will show favor?
Tosafot explain that the graciousness that Hashem acts with is a matanat chinam – His graciousness is an undeserved gift. Hashem acts towards the world with unending compassion and He bestows graciousness on whomever He so wills. The Jewish people did not deserve G-d’s renewing His relationship with them. They had sinned with the Golden Calf. However, Moshe pleads that Hashem should restore the relationship. Hashem responds that He will once again consider them as His people. Hashem acts with graciousness even to those who are not fit.
Even Moshe did not deserve for Hashem to pass all of His goodness before him. This is not a reward that Moshe merited – rather it is an undeserved gift – an act of the graciousness of Hashem.
This concept of graciousness explains the verses from Psalms that we mentioned earlier: Behold, like the servants’ eyes look to the hand of their master; as the maidens’ eyes look toward the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look toward Hashem until He is gracious to us. A master has free reign over the servant and the servant cannot make claims on the master. All that the master gives the servant is a gift.
The same is true of our requests of Hashem – they are requests for an undeserved gift. Hashem does not need our mitzvot – rewards are not repayment of a debt; G-d’s rewards are gifts of kindness and are undeserved. The kohanim pray that Hashem will shine His countenance upon the Jewish People and be gracious to them. This blessing conveys the idea that G-d will shine His countenance upon the Jewish people even though they do not deserve it.
In a more fundamental way, G-d’s trait of chanun – graciousness – explains one aspect of creation itself. While we cannot know why Hashem created the world, we do know that Hashem made the world for those benefit of those who He created.
If the world is for our benefit, why did Hashem create this world with all of its challenges and difficulties? Why did He not just create the serene existence of the World-To-Come?
Our chachamim explain that Hashem created the world in a manner that would not be a “shameful sustenance” (nahama de’kisufa) for Hashem’s creations. A shameful sustenance is a sustaining benefit that a person receives through no work or investment of his own. This type of sustenance is shameful because the person is always reliant on a handout. As an act of Hashem’s chesed, a matan sechar – an undeserved gift – comes to a person in his performing Torah and mitzvot in a manner of one receiving payment for his work.
Therefore, Hashem has bestowed on us a double chesed:
1) Hashem gives us an undeserved gift of all of His blessings and rewards, and
2) Hashem gives us this gift in a manner of a payment for work
This understanding of Hashem’s trait of chanun – graciousness – should affect the quality of our prayers. When we approach Hashem and ask Him for our needs based on graciousness, we do not argue that we deserve such and such because we are a good person or because we did this or that mitzva. Rather, we appeal to Hashem’s graciousness – we ask for an undeserved gift. One who serves Hashem should not request a reward for his service but he should recognize that whatever G-d gives him is appropriate. Like Moshe argued on behalf of the Jewish people and on his own behalf, we request G-d’s graciousness so that we can better serve Hashem and so that we can be closer to Him.
Sephardic communities have the custom to begin saying selichot – prayers of penitence – at the beginning of the month of Elul, and Ashkenazic communities begin saying selichot closer to Rosh HaShana. One of the hallmarks of the selichot prayers is the recitation of the shelosh esre middot, Hashem’s thirteen traits of mercy. Hashem taught these traits to Moshe in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf and instructed him to recite them when praying to Hashem for mercy. The Torah describes these traits in a verse in parashat Ki Tissa in Sefer Shemot:
“Hashem, Hashem. Merciful and gracious G-d, long-suffering and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Keeping kindness to the thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And wipe away, He will not wipe away, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third generation and until the fourth generation.”
One of these traits is chanun – Hashem acts with graciousness or favor. Indeed, our prayers regularly refer to the graciousness or favor with which Hashem acts. Some examples include:
The daily amidah – ata chonen le’adam da’at – You favor man with perception.
Also, in the amidah – chonenu ve’anenu u’shma tefilatenu – be gracious and answer us and hear our prayer.
Ya’ale ve’yavo – the special addition for holidays – choos ve’chonenu – spare us and favor us.
Birkat kohanim – ye’ere Hashem panav elecha vichuneka – Hashem will shine His countenance upon you and be gracious unto you.
In each of these cases, the statement regarding what Hashem has given us or the request for Hashem to give us something is qualified by Hashem’s favor for us. Why do we include the qualification that Hashem should favor us or be gracious to us in these and in similar types of cases?
What is graciousness?
In Tehilim, King David elaborates on a plea for G-d to act with graciousness towards us. He says, “Behold, like the servants’ eyes look to the hand of their master; as the maidens’ eyes look toward the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look toward Hashem until He is gracious to us.” What an interesting verse! In his sefer, Beis HaLevi, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik seeks to understand the connection between a servant looking to the hand of the master and our looking to Hashem for graciousness. In a passage just prior to the one quoted above, there is a momentous exchange between Moshe and the Almighty. Moshe is pleading on behalf of the Jewish people.
Moshe says to Hashem, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people (to the Land of Israel)’; and You did not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet, You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in My eyes’. Now therefore, I beseech You, if I have found favor in Your eyes, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find favor in Your eyes; and consider that this nation is Your people.” And Hashem said, “My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.” And Moshe said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with me, do not bring us out from here. For where shall it be known here that I and Your people have found favor in Your eyes? Is it not in that You go with us that we are distinct, I and Your people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?” And Hashem said to Moshe, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in My eyes and I know you by name.” And Moshe said, “I beseech You, show me Your glory.” And Hashem said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the Name of G-d before you; and will show favor to whom I will show favor and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
In summary, Moshe pleads to Hashem for two things: that G-d should show His way to Moshe and that G-d should consider the Jewish people as His people. Hashem grants these requests because Moshe found favor in G-d’s eyes. Moshe then pleads that Hashem should show him His glory and Hashem responds that He will make all of His goodness pass before Moshe and that He will show favor to who I will show favor and will show mercy on whom He will show mercy.
What does this final statement add? What does it mean that G-d will show favor to whom He will show favor?
Tosafot explain that the graciousness that Hashem acts with is a matanat chinam – His graciousness is an undeserved gift. Hashem acts towards the world with unending compassion and He bestows graciousness on whomever He so wills. The Jewish people did not deserve G-d’s renewing His relationship with them. They had sinned with the Golden Calf. However, Moshe pleads that Hashem should restore the relationship. Hashem responds that He will once again consider them as His people. Hashem acts with graciousness even to those who are not fit.
Even Moshe did not deserve for Hashem to pass all of His goodness before him. This is not a reward that Moshe merited – rather it is an undeserved gift – an act of the graciousness of Hashem.
This concept of graciousness explains the verses from Psalms that we mentioned earlier: Behold, like the servants’ eyes look to the hand of their master; as the maidens’ eyes look toward the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look toward Hashem until He is gracious to us. A master has free reign over the servant and the servant cannot make claims on the master. All that the master gives the servant is a gift.
The same is true of our requests of Hashem – they are requests for an undeserved gift. Hashem does not need our mitzvot – rewards are not repayment of a debt; G-d’s rewards are gifts of kindness and are undeserved. The kohanim pray that Hashem will shine His countenance upon the Jewish People and be gracious to them. This blessing conveys the idea that G-d will shine His countenance upon the Jewish people even though they do not deserve it.
In a more fundamental way, G-d’s trait of chanun – graciousness – explains one aspect of creation itself. While we cannot know why Hashem created the world, we do know that Hashem made the world for those benefit of those who He created.
If the world is for our benefit, why did Hashem create this world with all of its challenges and difficulties? Why did He not just create the serene existence of the World-To-Come?
Our chachamim explain that Hashem created the world in a manner that would not be a “shameful sustenance” (nahama de’kisufa) for Hashem’s creations. A shameful sustenance is a sustaining benefit that a person receives through no work or investment of his own. This type of sustenance is shameful because the person is always reliant on a handout. As an act of Hashem’s chesed, a matan sechar – an undeserved gift – comes to a person in his performing Torah and mitzvot in a manner of one receiving payment for his work.
Therefore, Hashem has bestowed on us a double chesed:
1) Hashem gives us an undeserved gift of all of His blessings and rewards, and
2) Hashem gives us this gift in a manner of a payment for work
This understanding of Hashem’s trait of chanun – graciousness – should affect the quality of our prayers. When we approach Hashem and ask Him for our needs based on graciousness, we do not argue that we deserve such and such because we are a good person or because we did this or that mitzva. Rather, we appeal to Hashem’s graciousness – we ask for an undeserved gift. One who serves Hashem should not request a reward for his service but he should recognize that whatever G-d gives him is appropriate. Like Moshe argued on behalf of the Jewish people and on his own behalf, we request G-d’s graciousness so that we can better serve Hashem and so that we can be closer to Him.
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