ספר שמות

‎שלש עשרה מדות א-ל‎ “13 Divine attributes;” let us come ‎back to Rabbi Dov Baer’s comparison of G’d’s 13 attributes of ‎Mercy in their various nuances and the 13 categories of valid ‎Torah interpretations of Rabbi Yishmael, and the statement that ‎the category of ‎קל וחומר‎, logical deductions, such as inferences ‎from a minor to a major, corresponds to the Divine attribute ‎א-ל‎ ‎in our verse. This may become clearer when we recall a statement ‎by our sages in the Talmud Baba kamma 25. The Talmud ‎there deals with Moses’ prayer in Numbers 12,13 after his sister ‎Miriam had been struck with tzoraat, (a punitive skin ‎eczema). He said: ‎א-ל נא רפא נא לה‎, usually translated as: “please O ‎G’d heal her!” G’d’s answer includes the reminder that if one has ‎behaved so badly that one’s own father has spat in one’s face, ‎does one not deserve at least a week during which one will be ‎ostracized from society? It follows that one deserves at least the ‎same level of punishment when one is guilty of such behaviour ‎against the Creator! G’d thereupon decrees seven days of ‎exclusion of Miriam from the main body of the people. This is a ‎classic example of the logic called ‎קל וחומר‎, and it was used by ‎G’d’s attribute ‎א-ל‎ to which Moses had appealed at that time.‎We may expand on this theme by citing the Talmud ‎‎Sanhedrin 91 where we are told that when a cure occurs as ‎overt intervention by heaven this is comparable to the ‎application of the exegetical tool called ‎קל וחומר‎, “logic.” When ‎someone doubted G’d’s ability to resurrect man, the doubter who ‎admitted believing that G’d had created man, was told that if G’d ‎had created man out of nothing, how much easier is it for Him to ‎restore the dead to life seeing that they had already been alive ‎once. This is another example of how the attribute of ‎א-ל‎ is linked ‎to the exegetical tool called ‎קל וחומר‎.‎Seeing that we have stated repeatedly that it is impossible for ‎a creature, including the most spiritually oriented one such as ‎Moses, to truly understand the essence of the Creator, the ‎question of how the authors of the prayers could make ‎statements about G’d’s attributes, etc.; is obvious. The answer is ‎equally obvious. The sages who composed the liturgy observed ‎attributes possessed by man, i.e. G’d’s creature, and concluded ‎that these attributes must reflect similar attributes possessed by ‎the Creator, else where did they originate? In other words, the ‎attributes of G’d are closely related to the use of the ‎קל וחומר‎, the ‎exegetical tool known as “logic.” It is “logical” therefore to speak ‎of ‎הא-ל הגדול‎, etc., “the great Divine power,” in our prayers, the ‎introductory words of the ‎עמידה‎, the central prayer on all three ‎occasions that we pray communally each day. When continuing ‎to list specific attributes of G’d, this is in the nature of describing ‎how the Creator has practiced ‎צמצום‎, “self-restraint,” for the sake ‎of His creatures. Expressed allegorically, this “self restraint” of G’d ‎may be compared to the hair on one’s body, a ‎לבוש‎, “garment,” ‎designed to tone down the overwhelming light emanating from ‎G’d’s essence, something that man cannot endure, and the reason ‎why the Israelites at Mount Sinai asked G’d to make Moses their ‎intermediary. When acquainting Moses with 13 of His attributes ‎in our portion, our sages have described the grand total of these ‎attributes mentioned here as ‎תקונא דיוקנא‎, “the beard and ‎‎peyot, sideburns,” of the Creator.‎Seeing that the list of these attributes extends [i.e. ‎beyond the word ‎א-ל‎], all the way until the words ‎רב חסד‎, ‎‎“abundant in the dispensation of loving kindness,” (to His people ‎Israel) David alludes to this when he said in psalms 118,5 ‎מן המצר ‏קראתי י-ה ענני במרחב י-ה‎, “When I called upon G’d out of my ‎distress, He answered me in the most expansive manner.”‎