God's Ways

(13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh” [“I will be what I will be” or “I am what I am” or “Whatever”]. He continued, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’” (15) And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: This shall be My name forever, This My appellation for all eternity.’”

(2) God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am YHWH [or the LORD]. (3) I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai [perhaps: “God of the mountains”], but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHWH.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: From where is it derived that the Holy One, Blessed be He, prays? As it is stated: “I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in the house of My prayer” (Isaiah 56:7). The verse does not say the house of their prayer, but rather, “the house of My prayer”; from here we see that the Holy One, Blessed be He, prays.

The Gemara asks: What does God pray? To whom does God pray?

Rav Zutra bar Tovia said that Rav said: God says: May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My anger, and may My mercy prevail over My other attributes, and may I conduct myself toward My children with the attribute of mercy, and may I enter before them beyond the letter of the law.

Similarly, it was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest, said: Once, on Yom Kippur, I entered the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies, to offer incense, and I saw Akatriel Ya, the Lord of Hosts [one of the names of God expressing His authority] seated upon a high and exalted throne (see Isaiah 6). And He said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me.
I said to Him: “May it be Your will that Your mercy overcome Your anger, and may Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, and may You act toward Your children with the attribute of mercy, and may You enter before them beyond the letter of the law.”
The Holy One, Blessed be He, nodded His head and accepted the blessing. This event teaches us that you should not take the blessing of an ordinary person lightly.

(5) After the LORD your God shall you walk, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone, and heed only His orders; worship none but Him, and hold fast to Him.

And Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “After the Lord your God shall you walk” (Deuteronomy 13:5)? But is it actually possible for a person to follow the Divine Presence? For hasn’t it already been stated: “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and one cannot approach fire. He explains: Rather, the meaning is that one should follow the attributes of the Holy One, Blessed be He. Just as He clothes the naked, as it is written: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), so too, should you clothe the naked. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, visits the sick, as it is written with regard to God’s appearing to Abraham following his circumcision: “And the Lord appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre” (Genesis 18:1), so too, should you visit the sick. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, consoles mourners, as it is written: “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son” (Genesis 25:11), so too, should you console mourners. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, buried the dead, as it is written: “And he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:6), so too, should you bury the dead.

(4) So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. (5) The LORD came down in a cloud; He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name LORD. (6) The LORD passed before him and proclaimed: “The LORD! the LORD! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, (7) extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” (8) Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, (9) and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!”

Our Father, our King!

Deal with us [kindly] for the sake of Your Name; renew for us a good year; annul all harsh decrees concerning us; annul the designs of those who hate us; thwart the plans of our enemies; rid us of every oppressor and adversary; close the mouths of our adversaries and our accusers; remove pestilence, sword, famine, captivity, destruction and [the burden of] iniquity from the members of Your covenant; withhold the plague from Your inheritance; forgive and pardon all our iniquities; blot out and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes; erase in Your abundant mercy all records of our liabilities; bring us back in wholehearted; send complete healing to the sick among Your people; tear up the evil [parts] of our sentence; remember us favorably before You; fill our hands with Your blessings; fill our storehouses with abundance; hear our voice, spare us and have compassion upon us; accept our prayer with compassion and favor; open the gates of heaven to our prayer; remember, that we are dust; please do not turn us away empty-handed from You; let this hour be an hour of compassion and a time of favor before You; have compassion upon us, and upon our children and infants; do it for Your sake if not for ours; do it for Your sake and deliver us; do it for the sake of Your great mercy; deal with us charitably and kindly and deliver us.