Thoughts about the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy

 Two thoughts about the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Exodus/Shemot 34:6-7) - I want to write more about them, but I will share the basic thoughts here:

1. Whenever the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy are chanted as part of the High Holiday liturgy, in Selichot, on fast days, etc., they are chanted three times. Three times thirteen equals thirty-nine. There are thirty-nine melachot, or categories of work, prohibited to be done on Shabbat - and the reason they are prohibited is that they are the tasks done to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. The commandment to observe/remember Shabbat contains the commandment "Six days shall you labor" - so the commandment to rest from performing the tasks to build the Mishkan includes the implicit commandment to do so the rest of the week - which can be seen metaphorically as a commandment to work to build a place for G!d's presence on earth within and among us. Since the thirty-nine tasks equal three times thirteen, this can be seen as a commandment to build a metaphorical place for the presence of G!d emulating G!d's Thirteen Attributes of Mercy as the essential nature of those tasks (and we should emulate G!d because we are created in the image (Genesis/Bereshit 1:27) and likeness (Genesis/Bereshit 5:10 of G!d.

2. Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, in Kedushas Levi on Ki Tisa 14, quoting the Maggid of Mezritch, teaches that the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy correspond to the Thirteen Hermeneutical Principles contained in the Baraita of Rabbi Yishmael, each Attritute having a corresponding Hermeneutical Principle. (More info about these here: https://jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12937-rules-of-r....) These Hermeneutical Principles are recited at the end of the first section of Shacharit each morning. As regular readers know, I have wrestled with the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis/Bereshit 22), for many years - and intriguingly, the Akedah is traditionally recited in the first section of Shacharit, not that long before the recitation of this Baraita. I think that perhaps reading this very disturbing text of Abraham almost murdering his son, which can be seen as resulting in trauma for Isaac, in the context of Hermeneutical Principles that correspond to the Attributes of Mercy, teaches us to have a "hermeneutic of G!d's mercy" when approaching traumatic texts such as this. (And "mercy" is such a weak translation of the incredibly rich "Rachmanim" - derived from "rechem," meaning "womb" - "rachmonus" - to use the Yiddish pronunciation means compassion - but a very deep compassion, the English word for which doesn't really exist.)

Shavua Tov - have a great week!