Who Knows 13? I Know 13!

(1) The LORD said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. (2) Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. (3) No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.” (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,

ה׳ ה׳- This is the attribute of Divine mercy. The one (the first ה׳) alludes to God having mercy on the sinner before he sins and the other, after he has sinned and repented (Rosh Hashanah 17b).

'ה' ה- Rashi's commentary is important seeing that sins such as idolatry, if not repented are treated as two sins, i.e. from the moment one contemplated to commit idolatry it is already considered sinful and punishable separately as soon as one had carried out that intention.

This is based on Ezekiel 14:5 as interpreted in the Talmud tractate Kidushin, “I will hold the house of Israel accountable for their thoughts.”

Slow to anger- God defers anger and does not hasten to punish. It may be that the sinner will repent.

And the world is judged well- The mishna says that God judges people with kindness and goodness, not according to what they truly deserve in judgment. God clarified God's ways in this in saying “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6), which the Talmud (Bava Kamma 50b) explains as applying to both the righteous and the wicked. And the poetic prophet says “God is good to all” (Psalms 145:9).

Abundant in mercy- to those who need mercy because they do not have sufficient merits to be saved by them.

נצר חסד- God keeps (stores up) the mercy which a person does in God's presence

Extending kindness to a thousand generations- God undertakes to extend kindness to the descendants of the good and righteous.

נוצר חסד לאלפים- God preserves the accumulated merits of the fathers and will let the children draw on these merits.

נושא עון- premeditated sin.

ופשע- sins intended to challenge God.

וחטאה- as well as unintentionally committed sin

וחטאה, additional to the taunting sin called פשע. We encounter an illustration of this in Jeremiah 11:15 כי רעתכי אז תעלוזי, “for you exult while performing your evil deeds.” We must remember that the degree of evil committed by different people is never a duplicate, i.e. each one commits evil according to his own agenda; hence G’d’s reaction to such evil varies after taking into consideration all the circumstances. This is why all these attributes have been enumerated separately.

Iniquity, transgression and sin- Iniquity (avon) refers to intentional sin; transgression (pesha) to acts of rebellion and sin (cheit) to inadvertent infractions. The vav between “transgression” and “sin” does not mean “and” but “like.” Thus the sense of the verse is, “Bear iniquity and transgression as if they were only inadvertent sins”.