Dvar Torah Eikev 5781

(12) And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the LORD your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, (13) keeping the LORD’s commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good. (14) Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches belong to the LORD your God, the earth and all that is on it! (15) Yet it was to your fathers that the LORD was drawn in His love for them, so that He chose you, their lineal descendants, from among all peoples—as is now the case. (16) Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts and stiffen your necks no more. (17) For the LORD your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, (18) but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing.— (19) You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Why are the Sages of those generations called the members of the Great Assembly? It is because they returned the crown of the Holy Blessed One to its former glory. How so?

Moses came and said in his prayer: “The great, the mighty, and the awesome God” (Deuteronomy 10:17).

Jeremiah the prophet came and said: Gentiles, i.e., the minions of Nebuchadnezzar, are carousing in God's sanctuary; where is God's awesomeness? Therefore, he did not say awesome in his prayer: “The great God, the mighty Lord of Hosts, is His name” (Jeremiah 32:18).

Daniel came and said: Gentiles are enslaving God's children; where is God's might? Therefore he did not say mighty in his prayer: “The great and awesome God” (Daniel 9:4).

You show kindness to the thousandth generation, but visit the guilt of the fathers upon their children after them. O great and mighty God whose name is LORD of Hosts,

I prayed to the LORD my God, making confession thus: “O Lord, great and awesome God, who stays faithful to His covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments!

The Gemara asks: And the earlier masters, i.e., Jeremiah and Daniel, how could they do this and uproot an ordinance instituted by Moses, the greatest teacher, who instituted the mention of these attributes in prayer?

Rabbi Elazar said: They did so because they knew of the Holy Blessed One, that God is truthful and hates a lie. Consequently, they did not speak falsely about God. Since they did not perceive God's attributes of might and awesomeness, they did not refer to them.

“And now, our God, great, mighty, and awesome God, who stays faithful to His covenant, do not treat lightly all the suffering that has overtaken us—our kings, our officers, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all Your people—from the time of the Assyrian kings to this day.

Barukh ata Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, God of Sarah, God of Rebecca, God of Rachel, and God of Leah, great, mighty, awe-inspiring, transcendent God, who acts with lovingkindness and creates all things, who remembers the loving deeds of our ancestors, and who will send a redeemer to their children's children with love for the sake of divine honor.

The members of the Great Assembly came and said: On the contrary, this is the might of God's might, i.e., this is the fullest expression of it, that God conquers God's inclination in that God exercises patience toward the wicked.

Ben Zoma said: Who is mighty? He who subdues his [evil] inclination, as it is said: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city” (Proverbs 16:32).

And this is God's awesomeness: Were it not for the awesomeness of the Holy Blessed One how could one people, i.e., the Jewish people, who are alone and hated by the gentile nations, survive among the nations?