Practical Mercy, Part I

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna.  

It wasn’t Ruach Hakodesh (Divine spirit) 

My question, which seemed to be coming out of the blue, surprised them very much. They looked at each other in astonishment and admitted that this is, indeed, what they had been doing. “That is the source of all your problems,” I said decisively.

This was after the couple had been sitting in my room for a long time, telling me of the series of blows and problems that were landing on them one after another. I sat and listened, feeling their pain. It really was a revelation of middat hadin (strict justice) in full force. Very difficult and inexplicable things. They had been praying a lot and couldn’t see even the beginning of a yeshuah (salvation). Why is Hashem doing this to them? 

I then asked them a simple question: Are you practicing birth control without consulting with a qualified rabbi? They admitted to it, took upon themselves to correct their ways, and after a short time they saw great Divine Providence and life went back to normal.  

If you are asking yourself: “Was that Ruach Hakodesh?”, I will tell you: “No, absolutely not.” 

I heard from my teachers that when one sees particularly difficult dinim, most of the time it comes from closing the womb – segirat harechem. I can bear witness to dozens and even hundreds of cases that came to me, and in all of them that was precisely the problem.  

If you ask, “What’s the connection?”, it is very simple. Rachamim (mercy) comes from the word rechem (womb), and when a woman closes down her rechem without first consulting with a qualified halachic authority, she is actually closing off the flow of rachamim to herself and to her entire family! 

If Hashem’s mercy is removed from a person, may this not happen, there is no need to describe what the consequences will be. 

More Than a Play on Words 

And if you ask, well, this is indeed a nice play on words – rechem and rachamim – but what is really the connection between the two? 

This is an excellent question that will provide us with a deep understanding of the concept of Hashem’s rachamim. One can say that this is precisely the biggest chiddush (novel idea) in parshat Ki Tisa: the revelation of Hashem’s thirteen middot of rachamim¹. This is not a theoretical discussion, but a very important question relating to the foundation of our emuna (faith), with immediate and practical consequences, as we will see. 

There is no love like parents’ love for their children, and the connection starts already in the womb. The parents are connected and attached to the child without even seeing him, without knowing who he is and what he is, unconnected with his deeds, or to any external factor. It is due just to the very fact that the mother is carrying the fetus in her womb; that is enough for her to feel attached and connected to him very, very deeply. 

The connection is potential love, as Rabbi Nachman says: ahava shebeda’at², a hidden love which has not yet been expressed in this world. And even when the child is born and the parents love him with a simple and open-hearted love, because they see how cute and sweet he is, and because of all that they invest him and give him – then too the deepest love is the ahava shebeda’at.  

They don’t love their child because he or she is cute, rather, they love him or her because the connection between them is a deep, unbreakable tie, one that begins in the rechem, and nothing in the world can disconnect and separate the child from them.  

Mercy in Every Situation 

And that is precisely the rachamim of Hashem! 

Moshe Rabbeinu understood that the love and mercy of Hashem yitbarach for the Jewish People are not dependent on anything; it doesn’t matter what happened and what the Jewish people have done – just like the love of parents, which starts from the womb.  

And even when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, tells him: That’s it. I don’t want this nation anymore, Moshe Rabbeinu doesn’t give up. You might think, Why not? Please excuse me for “grading” Hashem, so to speak, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, was right. The Jewish people had committed such a severe sin after all the miracles and revelations of the Shechinah and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai – what more can He do with them? What favorable judgment can he give them? Why is Moshe being so insistent? 

Moshe Rabbeinu, who merited to acquire some concept of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, in other words, he reached the level of pure emunah at its highest level – he understood that in spite of the fact that there is no way to describe the Holy One, Blessed be He and there is no way a human being can grasp His essence, yet one thing can be said: Hashem is all good, all love, all rachamim, and just like He yitbarach is Ein-Sof (limitless), so too is His mercy. 

And that is why he stands and prays for forty days and forty nights! 

How can one pray so much? Prayer is a direct result of emunah! If you cease praying, it means that you think that there is a limit to Hashem’s rachamim. If you believe that Hashem’s mercy is limitless, you will stand and pray and pray and pray until you see results! 

Uninhibited Prayer 

And indeed, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, reveals Himself to Moshe in an unprecedented revelation: “Show me, please, Your glory.” And during this immense revelation Hashem yitbarach reveals to him the thirteen middot of rachamim! The middot that are always effective! 

And indeed, Moshe Rabbeinu grabs this opportunity with both hands and prays repeatedly for forty days. He not only annuls the decree but puts things back the way they were, bringing about an even better and stronger connection with the Holy One, Blessed be He. 

The thirteen middot begin with: “Hashem, Hashem, El rachum vechanun” etc. why is Hashem’s name mentioned twice? The Gemara explains: “I am I before the person sins and I am I after the person sins and does teshuva.” In other words, just as you believe in my rachamim before you sin, now, too, after the sin, do not give up; do everything until you manage to awaken my rachamim, because My rachamim is there after the sin as well. 

Even more so – the rachamim after the sin is greater and on a higher level.  

What does “after the sin” mean? The answer is that even after all sins committed in the entire world during all generations, from Adam haRishon until today – even after all this – Hashem is still merciful, because there is no end to His rachamim. 

Because rachamim is like rechem. It is an existing reality and is independent. Like a father who remains a father even if his child has slipped and fallen into sin. Even then, the father has mercy on his child. 

Hashem’s Mercy Is Great 

And that is the greatness of the tzaddik. Because the greatness of all tzaddikim is according to the degree that they grasp Hashem’s mercy. The more you believe and know that Hashem is a loving, merciful father, the higher you rise, reaching the highest levels of holiness. 

And that is what the holy Zohar says — if Moshe Rabbeinu would have been living in the generation of the Mabul (Deluge), no Mabul would have happened. And if he would have lived in the time of Sedom and Amora – Sedom would not have been overturned. He grasped Hashem’s  rachamim completely, and therefore he would have stood and prayed until all these decrees would have been annulled.  

We will now sum up the main points and continue, with Hashem’s help, next week and see how the knowledge that Hashem’s rachamim is limitless expresses itself and why it is critical for each and every one of us, in his personal life: 

The belief in Hashem’s rachamim and love is inseparable from the mitzvah of emunah. To believe in Hashem and not believe that He is merciful and that He loves me is a terrible weakness in one’s  emunah. 

And since everything depends on emunah, as we explained in the book, The Garden of Emunah, then everything depends on clear knowledge of Hashem’s rachamim. Every change for the better in your life, all salvations – are dependent on one’s prayers, because he who prays at length, his prayers are always effective. 

Our parasha tells us that it is impossible to pray at length without faith in Hashem’s rachamim. A person who truly believes in Hashem’s mercy cannot have the experience of praying and not experiencing a salvation; rather, he stands and prays more and more and more and doesn’t stop and doesn’t rest until he sees his prayer is effective. Why? Because Hashem is merciful, Hashem loves me, Hashem wants to give to me, He wants more prayers, I will pray more, but I have no doubt that in the end He will give me what I want! 

And so, the belief in Hashem’s mercy is the main part of complete emunah, and it is also the most influential thing when it comes to the life of the believer, bringing him to live an active life of emunah, in other words, to live prayer and one’s connection to Hashem and to bring about salvations.  

Editor’s Notes 

¹ Shemot (Exodus) 34:6-7 

² Likutei Moharan I, Torah 33:5