Gevurot Hashem

Who can speak of the mighty acts of Adonai; Proclaim all God's praise? Ps. 106:2 *From the Shabbat liturgy: “If our mouths were as full of song as the sea, and our tongue as full of jubilation as its myriad waves, if our lips were full of praise like the spacious heavens, and our eyes shone like the sun and moon, and our hands as outstretched as eagles of the sky, and our feet as swift as hinds – we still could not sufficiently thank You. This verse teaches us that to praise the Holy One is impossible from two perspectives. First, one cannot fully express the greatness of God’s acts. Second, since God's acts are without end, it is impossible to praise all of them. Therefore both qualitatively and quantitatively one cannot fully praise God. Qualitatively, words cannot fully capture the greatness of God's might and quantitatively, one cannot mention all of God's acts that deserve praise. This is the meaning of the verse from Psalms. Regarding the qualitative nature of God’s acts, Scripture states, "Who can speak of (milel) the mighty acts of God." The word milel, tell, implies saying something new as in the verse, "Who would have said (milel) that Abraham that Sarah would suckle children?" (Gen. 21:7) The second half of the verse expresses the great number of God's acts, "Who can proclaim all God's praise?" The expression, "all God's praise," implies the great number of acts God has performed.

The Talmud relates: "A certain reader went down*In this story, the person who was leading the congregation in prayer added a list of adjectives in praise of God. In the rabbinic world, there was not yet a set liturgy yet so the prayer leader would improvise in phrasing the prayers. Rabbi Hanina chides the prayer leader for adding too many adjectives in praise of God and not using the three terms of praise which Moses stated and the Great Assembly canonized. The Men of the Great Assembly created the first order of prayers at the beginning of the second Temple period. (to lead prayers) in the presence of Rabbi Hanina and said, 'O God, great, mighty, terrible, majestic, powerful, awful, strong, fearless, sure and honored.' Rabbi Hanina waited till he had finished, and then said to him, 'Have you concluded all the praise of God? Why do we say all this? Even with the three terms that we do say (haGadol haGibor, v’haNorah, from Deut. 10:17) , had not Moses mentioned them in the Torah and the Men of the Great Synagogue not inserted them in the Amida, we should not have been able to mention them, and you say all these and still go on! It is as if an earthly king had a million denarii of gold and someone praised him as possessing silver ones.'" (B. Berachot 33b)

Maimonides explains this to mean that one should not try to praise the extent of God's greatness nor mention all of God's mighty acts since they are without number. This is the meaning of the parable: switching gold with silver demeans the quality of the praise just as praising the king for having thousands of denarii when he actually has thousands upon thousands diminishes the king and would be an insult to him.

Therefore, one must ask, how can we be commanded to praise God's mighty acts that took place during the Exodus? Why not say, "Who can tell the mighty acts of Adonai, proclaim all God's praise,” and refrain from praising God.*Since we cannot possibly mention all the miraculous acts that God performed during the Exodus or the greatness of each individual act why are we commanded to mention all of God's mighty acts and praise God for having redeemed us? God's greatness is beyond human comprehension and expression.

It is true that we are incapable of "telling the mighty acts of God and proclaiming all God's praise." The reason we speak of God's mighty acts on Passover eve is not for God's sake but for our own sake. We recite these praises so that we don’t become ungrateful for the miracles and wonders that God has performed for us. If we give thanks for even a small portion of that which God has done for us then we are less likely to become ungrateful.

This suggests that if it was not our intention to praise God, then it is not forbidden to speak of God's attributes, as Rabbi Hanina said, "Had Moses our Master not mentioned these three words…we should not have been able to mention them."*If it is one's intention to praise God then one might sound like a servile person who flatters others. Praise serves a higher purpose of developing a sense of reverence in the presence of God. God does not need our praise, in other words; we need these words of praise to develop the proper attitudes in ourselves. We do not call God Ha-el hagadol hagibor v'hanora – the great mighty and awesome God - as a means of praising God but simply because this was the formula used by Moses. It serves as a means of developing reverence rather than serving as a means of praising God. Since praise of God is unseemly, why did Moses offer these words of praise, 'great, mighty, and awesome?' It was not Moses intention to speak words of praise God but rather to teach the people of Israel to become more God fearing. By contemplating these three terms (God is great, mighty, and awesome) the people could develop fear of God. That is why it was permissible for Moses to recite these words and for the Men of the Great Assembly to insert them into the Amida. Even though they were included in the Amidah, they were not offered as words of praise. They were simply words that were taken from Scripture.

The fact that the Men of the Great Assembly decreed that they should be included in the Amida proves that we do not say them to include words of praise but rather to create a set text for the Amida based on the language of Moses.