[Avodah] 13 middot

Micha Berger via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Tue Sep 13 07:55:20 PDT 2016


On a totally different note...

In R' Amital's Et Ratzon: Sichot leYamim haNora'im (2012), RYA says
that vehalakhta dibdrakhav -- the "mah Ani af atah" of "zeh keili
ve'anveihu" is not of all of Hashem's middos. For example, not "Keil
Qana" (Shemos 2:4).

Rather, note that Abba Sha'ul (Shabbos 133b) says on "ve'anveihu --
ani veHu", "mah Hu Rachum veChanun" -- the middoes he names are from
the 13 Middos haRachamim in particular.

As the gemara (RH 17b) put it, "ya'asu lefanai keseider hazah" --
imitating the 13 middos haRachamim is the key to guaranteed mechilah.


I have 2 caveats to this thought:

1- It is a machloqes whether "ya'asu lefanai" really means to do /
imitate, or it means reciting the words the way He Did. This maamar was
sais in respons to R' Yochanan's "shenis'ateif HQBH kesha"tz veher'ah
lo leMosheh *seider* Tefillah."

See what I wrote after hearing RZLeff's Shabbos Shuvah derashah last
year
<http://lists.aishdas.org/htdig.cgi/avodah-aishdas.org/2015q4/077608.html>

Still, from RZL's survey of acharonim, it would seem that by far most
understand "ya'asu" as a call to emulate (as RYA assumes here), with
the Benei Yisaschar saying it's an element of the beris with BY that
overrides justice.

2- The Rambam (Dei'os 1:6) paraphrases the gemara in Shabbos, and then
adds "ve'al derekh zo, qore'u hanevi'im laKeil 'Erekh Apayim', ve-'Rav
Chesed', 'Tzadiq', ve-'Yashar', 'Tamim, 'Gibor', ve-'Chazaq'...

Clearly including adjectives that are not among the 13. For that matter,
it would appear from context that the Rambam is describing the Middah
haBeinonis. The Middah haBeinonis is defined in 1:5, and then 1:6
opens "kakh lomdu befeirush mitzvah zu".

IOW, it would seem that the Rambam's Middah Beinonis is a blend of
the middos on either side, not a middle point, and because this
is what it means to emulate Hashem -- as we see both Middos in Him.

And this is quite a different definition of vehalakhta bidrakhav than
RYA's identifying it with emulating Rachamim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is a drop of intellect drowning in a sea
micha at aishdas.org        of instincts.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
Fax: (270) 514-1507



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