The wisest man, our Teacher Moses, asked two things of God, and
received a reply respecting both. The one thing he asked was, that God
should let him know His true essence; the other, which in fact he asked
first, that God should let him know His attributes. In answer to both
these petitions God promised that He would let him know all His
attributes, and that these were nothing but His actions. He also told
him that His true essence could not be perceived, and pointed out a
method by which he could obtain the utmost knowledge of God possible
for man to acquire. The knowledge obtained by Moses has not been
possessed by any human being before him or after him. His petition to
know the attributes of God is contained in the following words: “Show
me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight” (Exod. xxxiii. 13). Consider how many excellent ideas found
expression in the words, “Show me thy way, that I may know thee.” We
learn from them that God is known by His attributes, for Moses believed
that he knew Him, when he was shown the way of God. The words “That I
may find grace in thy sight,” imply that he who knows God finds grace
in His eyes. Not only is he acceptable and welcome to God who fasts and
prays, but everyone who knows Him. He who has no knowledge of God is
the object of His wrath and displeasure. The pleasure and the
displeasure of God, the approach to Him and the withdrawal from Him are
proportional to the amount of man’s knowledge or ignorance concerning
the Creator. We have already gone too far away from our subject, let us
now return to it.
Moses prayed to God to grant him knowledge of His attributes, and also
pardon for His people; when the latter had been granted, he continued
to pray for the knowledge of God’s essence in the words, “Show me thy
glory” (ib. 18), and then received, respecting his first request, “Show
me thy way,” the following favourable reply, “I will make all my
goodness to pass before thee” (ib. 19); as regards the second request,
however, he was told, “Thou canst not see my face” (ib. 20). The words
“all my goodness” imply that God promised to show him the whole
creation, concerning which it has been stated, “And God saw everything
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. i. 31); when I
say “to show him the whole creation,” I mean to imply that God promised
to make him comprehend the nature of all things, their relation to each
other, and the way they are governed by God both in reference to the
universe as a whole and to each creature in particular. This knowledge
is referred to when we are told of Moses, “he is firmly established in
all mine house” (Num. xii. 7); that is, “his knowledge of all the
creatures in My universe is correct and firmly established”; for false
opinions are not firmly established. Consequently the knowledge of the
works of God is the knowledge of His attributes, by which He can be
known. The fact that God promised Moses to give him a knowledge of His
works, may be inferred from the circumstance that God taught him such
attributes as refer exclusively to His works, viz., “merciful and
gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness,” etc., (Exod. xxxiv.
6). It is therefore clear that the ways which Moses wished to know, and
which God taught him, are the actions emanating from God. Our Sages
call them middot (qualities), and speak of the thirteen middoth of God
(Talm. B. Rosh ha-shanah, p. 17b); they used the term also in reference
to man; comp. “there are four different middoth (characters) among
those who go to the house of learning”; “There are four different
middoth (characters) among those who give charity” (Mishnah Abot, v.
13, 14). They do not mean to say that God really possesses middot
(qualities), but that He performs actions similar to such of our
actions as originate in certain qualities, i.e., in certain psychical
dispositions; not that God has really such dispositions. Although Moses
was shown “all His goodness,” i.e., all His works, only the thirteen
middot are mentioned, because they include those acts of God which
refer to the creation and the government of mankind, and to know these
acts was the principal object of the prayer of Moses. This is shown by
the conclusion of his prayer, “that I may know thee, that I may find
grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people” (Exod.
xxxiii. 16), that is to say, the people whom I have to rule by certain
acts in the performance of which I must be guided by Thy own acts in
governing them. We have thus shown that “the ways” used in the Bible,
and “middot” used in the Mishnah, are identical, denoting the acts
emanating from God in reference to the universe.
Whenever any one of His actions is perceived by us, we ascribe to God
that emotion which is the source of the act when performed by
ourselves, and call Him by an epithet which is formed from the verb
expressing that emotion. We see, e.g., how well He provides for the
life of the embryo of living beings; how He endows with certain
faculties both the embryo itself and those who have to rear it after
its birth, in order that it may be protected from death and
destruction, guarded against all harm, and assisted in the performance
of all that is required [for its development]. Similar acts, when
performed by us, are due to a certain emotion and tenderness called
mercy and pity. God is, therefore, said to be merciful; e.g., “Like as
a father is merciful to his children, so the Lord is merciful to them
that fear Him” (Ps. ciii. 13); “And I will spare them, as a man spareth
(yaḥamol) his own son that serveth him” (Mal. iii. 17). Such instances
do not imply that God is influenced by a feeling of mercy, but that
acts similar to those which a father performs for his son, out of pity,
mercy and real affection, emanate from God solely for the benefit of
His pious men, and are by no means the result of any impression or
change—[produced in God].—When we give something to a person who has no
claim upon us, we perform an act of grace; e.g., “Grant them graciously
unto us” (Judges xxi. 22). [The same term is used in reference to God,
e.g.] “which God hath graciously given” (Gen. xxxiii. 5); “Because God
hath dealt graciously with me” (ib. 11). Instances of this kind are
numerous. God creates and guides beings who have no claim upon Him to
be created and guided by Him; He is therefore called gracious
(ḥannun).—His actions towards mankind also include great calamities,
which overtake individuals and bring death to them, or affect whole
families and even entire regions, spread death, destroy generation
after generation, and spare nothing whatsoever. Hence there occur
inundations, earthquakes, destructive storms, expeditions of one nation
against the other for the sake of destroying it with the sword and
blotting out its memory, and many other evils of the same kind.
Whenever such evils are caused by us to any person, they originate in
great anger, violent jealousy, or a desire for revenge. God is
therefore called, because of these acts, “jealous,” “revengeful,”
“wrathful,” and “keeping anger” (Nah. i. 2); that is to say, He
performs acts similar to those which, when performed by us, originate
in certain psychical dispositions, in jealousy, desire for retaliation,
revenge, or anger; they are in accordance with the guilt of those who
are to be punished, and not the result of any emotion; for He is above
all defect! The same is the case with all divine acts; though
resembling those acts which emanate from our passions and psychical
dispositions, they are not due to anything superadded to His
essence.—The governor of a country, if he is a prophet, should conform
to these attributes. Acts [of punishment] must be performed by him
moderately and in accordance with justice, not merely as an outlet of
his passion. He must not let loose his anger, nor allow his passion to
overcome him; for all passions are bad, and they must be guarded
against as far as it lies in man’s power. At times and towards some
persons he must be merciful and gracious, not only from motives of
mercy and compassion, but according to their merits; at other times and
towards other persons he must evince anger, revenge, and wrath in
proportion to their guilt, but not from motives of passion. He must be
able to condemn a person to death by fire without anger, passion, or
loathing against him, and must exclusively be guided by what he
perceives of the guilt of the person, and by a sense of the great
benefit which a large number will derive from such a sentence. You
have, no doubt, noticed in the Torah how the commandment to annihilate
the seven nations, and “to save alive nothing that breatheth” (Deut.
xx. 16) is followed immediately by the words, “That they teach you not
to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their
gods; so should you sin against the Lord your God” (ib. 18); that is to
say, you shall not think that this commandment implies an act of
cruelty or of retaliation; it is an act demanded by the tendency of man
to remove everything that might turn him away from the right path, and
to clear away all obstacles in the road to perfection, that is, to the
knowledge of God. Nevertheless, acts of mercy, pardon, pity, and grace
should more frequently be performed by the governor of a country than
acts of punishment; seeing that all the thirteen middoth of God are
attributes of mercy with only one exception, namely, “visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Exod. xxxiv. 7); for the
meaning of the preceding attribute (in the original ve-nakkeh lo
yenakkeh) is “and he will not utterly destroy”; (and not “He will by no
means clear the guilty”); comp. “And she will be utterly destroyed
(ve-nikketah), she shall sit upon the ground” (Isa. iii. 26). When it
is said that God is visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, this refers exclusively to the sin of idolatry, and to no
other sin. That this is the case may be inferred from what is said in
the ten commandments, “upon the third and fourth generation of my
enemies” (Exod. xx. 5), none except idolaters being called “enemy”;
comp. also “every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth” (Deut. xii.
31). It was, however, considered sufficient to extend the punishment to
the fourth generation, because the fourth generation is the utmost a
man can see of his posterity; and when, therefore, the idolaters of a
place are destroyed, the old man worshipping idols is killed, his son,
his grandson, and his great-grandson, that is, the fourth generation.
By the mention of this attribute we are, as it were, told that His
commandments, undoubtedly in harmony with His acts, include the death
even of the little children of idolaters because of the sin of their
fathers and grandfathers. This principle we find frequently applied in
the Law, as, e.g., we read concerning the city that has been led astray
to idolatry, “destroy it utterly, and all that is therein” (Deut. xiii.
15). All this has been ordained in order that every vestige of that
which would lead to great injury should be blotted out, as we have
explained.
We have gone too far away from the subject of this chapter, but we have
shown why it has been considered sufficient to mention only these
(thirteen) out of all His acts; namely, because they are required for
the good government of a country; for the chief aim of man should be to
make himself, as far as possible, similar to God: that is to say, to
make his acts similar to the acts of God, or as our Sages expressed it
in explaining the verse, “Ye shall be holy” (Lev. xxi. 2): “He is
gracious, so be you also gracious; He is merciful, so be you also
merciful.”
The principal object of this chapter was to show that all attributes
ascribed to God are attributes of His acts, and do not imply that God
has any qualities.