God King, who sits on the throne of mercy, governs with kindness forgives the iniquities of His people. He removes them one by one, increasing forgiveness to sinners, and pardon to transgressors. Acting charitably with all who are of flesh and spirit; not according to their wickedness does He repay them. God, You instructed us to recite the thirteen [divine] attributes; remember unto us this day the covenant of the thirteen [attributes], as You made them known to the humble one of old (Moses): As it is written in Your Torah, “And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and He proclaimed the Name of the Lord.” And there it is stated, “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'YHVH, YHVH, Almighty, Merciful, Gracious, Slow to Anger, and Abundant in Kindness and Truth, Keeper of kindness for thousands of generations, Endurer of iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and Acquitter of those who repent.'”“And pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance.”

(1)ה׳ 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 ה׳ had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. (5)ה׳ came down in a cloud—and stood with him there, proclaiming the name ה׳. (6)ה׳ passed before him and proclaimed: “!ה! ה׳ 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 not remitting all punishment, but visiting 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 my lord, pray, let my lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” (10) [God] said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation; and all the people who are with you shall see how awesome are ה׳’s deeds which I will perform for you.

§ The verse states: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed…” (Exodus 34:6)

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Were it not explicitly written in the verse, it would be impossible to say this! The verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, wrapped Himself in a prayer shawl like a prayer leader and showed Moses the structure of the order of the prayer. He said to him: Whenever the Jewish people sin, let them act before Me in accordance with this order. Which is to say: let the prayer leader wrap himself in a prayer shawl and publicly recite the thirteen attributes of mercy, and I will forgive them.

The verse continues: “The Lord, the Lord,” and it should be understood as follows: I am He before a person sins, and I am He after a person sins and performs repentance, as God does not recall for him his first sins, since He is always “God, merciful and gracious” (Exodus 34:6).

Rav Yehuda said: A covenant was made with the thirteen attributes that they will not return empty-handed, meaning that if one mentions them, he will certainly be answered, as it is stated in this regard: “Behold, I make a covenant” (Exodus 34:10).

4) We need to explain to you the magnitude of God's mercy upon mortal beings, in that God has vouchsafed to us such powerful cosmic secrets - such that even when mortal beings have been condemned in the heavenly courts, and are deserving of all sorts of punishment, the [beings in the] lower realms are able to overturn and transmute all that strict judgment and punishment to goodness, as it says (Samuel II 23:3): "The righteous person shall rule, by awe of God" - which we can read as meaning "Who shall God be over-ruled by? The righteous person!" For I {God} issue a decree, and the righteous one annuls it.How so?Know that when there is such a righteous one in the world, who is able to get so deep in their contemplation and their prayer that they can reach all the way to the realm of pure divine desire and mercy, then even if something is decreed on high, when the prayer of such a righteous one ascends to the level of Keter [The Crown, the highest of all the sefirot in the Tree of Life], then the gates of the realm of Rachamim [grace, mercy] are opened, and when that happens, all the sentences that have been decreed are nullified since the lights of rachamim are lit and shining forth; and all the sefirot become flushed with divine grace and all sorts of supernal flow and blessing; and at such a time there is nowhere in the entire sefirotic system where Din [strict judgment] can get a foothold, and no aspect that is attaching to anger or agitation, since the Divine is situated in joy and desire, and all expressions of irritation pass away and all agents of Din are transformed to Rachamim.And all of this transmission of Munificent Grace is enacted by means of 13 supernal channels, 13 attributes embedded within the realm of justice - and none of this is really coming from the side of executing justice but rather from the side of divine desire [ratzon] and grace [rachamim]. Even though humanity is not really deserving, this Statement uttered by the righteous one causes the gateways of grace to be open, and the divine to enact itself through mercy and not through strict justice. And this is what is being referred to when God says (Ex 33:19) "I shall be merciful to whom I shall be merciful" - even though it's not strictly just - "And I shall be gracious to whom I shall be gracious" - even though it's not what's decreed in strict justice: for you see, when the countenance of rachamim shines forth from the Crown, everything is transformed to rachamim.This is something that can be enacted through prayer, and also through a few other specific mitzvot that can cause the gates of the realms of divine mercy to be opened, such as the priests' blessing of the people, and the mysteries of the incense and so forth. At such time as the gates of the dimension of divine rachamim are open, it is called an et ratzon, a propitious moment or time of divine desire: which is to say, at that time, all the realms above and below are filled up with chessed (lovingkindness) and rachamim (grace) and ratzon (divine desire), and there is no such thing as judgment or punishment there whatsoever, not a little and not a lot. …
The Holy One of Blessing, at the time of being persuaded by Moses to make atonement for Israel's sins, entrusted to him a gift which would open the dimension of rachamim at times of displeasure, and transmute all aspects of judgment to total grace - in that God vouchsafed to him the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. This is what the sages are referring to (in the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 17b), when they talk about there being a covenant embedded in the 13 Attributes, such that they won't ever be 'returned empty to sender.' That is, when these attributes are recounted before God, the aspect of Din goes back to being Rachamim, and God forgives all their sins.

R. Nathan ben Eleazar questioned R. Samuel.

He said to him:

How did the Holy One create the world?

R. Samuel said to him:

When the Holy One desired [to create] the world, he wrapped (rt.: 'TP) himself in light, as stated (in Ps. 104:2): PUTS ON (rt.: 'TP) LIGHT LIKE A GARMENT.


He said to him: You have told me in a whisper. Why in a whisper? He said to him: Just as I received < this tradition > in a whisper, so I have transmitted < it > to you in a whisper.

"'Were it not written in Scripture, it would be impossible to say it, etc.' - and Scripture was only stated in order to make it accessible to the ear, for thus it appeared to Moses in prophecy as if the Holy One, blessed be He, was wrapping Himself like a prayer leader, and this is [the meaning of] 'And He passed by, etc.' - like a prayer leader who passes his tallit over his face and recites in this particular manner. So did the Holy One, blessed be He, do in order to teach that thus they should do for all time, etc.


And in an ancient book from the wisdom of the Kabbalists I found, and these are its words: 'The Holy One, blessed be, wrapped Godself in that white tallit with which God wrapped Godself at the creation of the world, concerning which it is said "God covers Godself with light as with a garment" which shines from one end of the world to the other, etc.' And he elaborated on the secret of this matter.

(Devarim 11:22) "to walk in His ways": Which are the ways of the Holy One, Blessed Be? (Exodus 34:6-7) "The Lord, the Lord, God of mercy and grace, slow to wrath and abundant in mercy and truth, keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving transgression, offense, and sin, and cleansing …"And it is written (Yoel 3:5) "All who will be called by the name of the L-rd will escape": Now how is it possible for a man to be called by the name of the Holy One Blessed be He? But, (the intent is) just as the L-rd is called "merciful and gracious," you, too, be merciful and gracious, and give gratuitously to all. Just as the Holy One Blessed be He is called "righteous," viz. (Psalms 145:17) — you, too, be righteous. Just as the Holy One Blessed be He is called "saintly," — you, too, be saintly.