Din or Rachamim???
The parsha starts with the pasuk, “Vayedaber Elokim el Moshe, vayomer ailav, ani Hashem”. Chazal struggle with understanding why it’s written with two different names of G-d in the same pasuk. I heard a beautiful pshat this shabbos that I simply had to share here.
We are taught that Elokim is midas hadin – judgement and the name Hashem is midas harachamim - mercy/compassion. At first this makes the pasuk even harder to understand.
I heard in the name of Rav Hutner the following example to explain the pasuk. A person (chas v’shalom) breaks their leg, and they are upset about having been dealt with midas hadin. While they are in the hospital, they run a battery of tests and discover a much worse ailment, but having caught it at such an early stage, (boruch hashem) they are able to treat it. If not for the breaking of the leg, they would not have caught the ailment in time, and the result could and most likely would have been that much worse. Reflecting back, one realizes that breaking the leg was in fact NOT midas hadin, it was really midas harachamim. There are many other examples that explain this sentiment.
At the end of last week’s parsha, Moshe is complaining to Hashem that not only have Bnei Yisroel not been redeemed, but the Mitriyim have made their lives worse. We learned only years later that the extra difficulty of those years allowed them to leave Mitzrayim that much earlier.
Now we can understand the pasuk better. “Vayedaber Elokim el Moshe”. What appeared to be midas hadin was the way Moshe originally viewed it, but Hashem told him, don’t worry, “Vayomer ailav, ani Hashem” trust me, it’s really for their benefit and I am dealing with them with midas harachamim.
We are taught that Elokim is midas hadin – judgement and the name Hashem is midas harachamim - mercy/compassion. At first this makes the pasuk even harder to understand.
I heard in the name of Rav Hutner the following example to explain the pasuk. A person (chas v’shalom) breaks their leg, and they are upset about having been dealt with midas hadin. While they are in the hospital, they run a battery of tests and discover a much worse ailment, but having caught it at such an early stage, (boruch hashem) they are able to treat it. If not for the breaking of the leg, they would not have caught the ailment in time, and the result could and most likely would have been that much worse. Reflecting back, one realizes that breaking the leg was in fact NOT midas hadin, it was really midas harachamim. There are many other examples that explain this sentiment.
At the end of last week’s parsha, Moshe is complaining to Hashem that not only have Bnei Yisroel not been redeemed, but the Mitriyim have made their lives worse. We learned only years later that the extra difficulty of those years allowed them to leave Mitzrayim that much earlier.
Now we can understand the pasuk better. “Vayedaber Elokim el Moshe”. What appeared to be midas hadin was the way Moshe originally viewed it, but Hashem told him, don’t worry, “Vayomer ailav, ani Hashem” trust me, it’s really for their benefit and I am dealing with them with midas harachamim.
posted by A Frum Idealist | 1/28/2006 08:29:00 PM
6 Comments:
It is comforting to know this. There is always a silver lining if we look for it! Thank you, AFI, fo sharing this with us.
Very interesting thought. I guess we should all learn that everything we go through in life has a reason and is good for us. It is extremely difficult to just say "Gam Zu Latovah", however if we truly believe it then perhaps life would be that much easier to deal with.
Beautiful - thanks for sharing (see, i remember last week's lesson)
This happened to me once; it was an amazing moment of realization of Hashgacha.
It's a great lesson indeed.
How intimate, DM.
The plot thickens.
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