Conceptions and Misconceptions About the Middos of Hashem

Understanding the middos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is crucial both for proper emunah in Hashem as well as proper behavior. So we're gonna try, obviously incompletely, on a certain level obviously inadequately, but to touch upon both of those aspects. The Rambam writes you have in front of you that

מצווה עלינו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינונים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו.

Earlier in the perek in perek aleph of Hilchos Deios, the Rambam illustrated and gave examples of what the middah habeinonis is and now the Rambam tells us that there's an equation there's an identification of the drachim habeinonim and דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא and that therefore mimailei to go along that path of the derech habeinoni is the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. כך למדו בפירוש מצווה זו. This is what Chazal what kach lamdu. This is what Chazal taught us in explaining the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav

מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום מה הוא נקרא קדוש אף אתה היה קדוש.

There is a glaring asymmetry in the lashon HaRambam. We would have expected the Rambam to either say מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה תקרא חנון or מה הוא חנון אף אתה היה חנון and the difference is clear, right? It's מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון. So what's the pshat? What does the Rambam have in mind with that again very glaring asymmetry? So the Rambam explains you have it in the next source that when the Torah describes Hakadosh Baruch Hu as

רחום וחנון ארך אפים העניין הנה אינו שהוא בעל מידות.

It doesn't mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has different qualities, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has different attributes. העניין הנה אינו שהוא בעל מידות. Rather what it means is אבל פועל פעולות דומות לפעולות הבאות מאיתנו ממידות. Hakadosh Baruch Hu acts in a way that if a person were to act that way we would attribute it to the middah of rachamanus. We would attribute it to the middah of chanina. A person does have attributes, person does have different qualities. So speaking anthropomorphically so the Torah describes Hakadosh Baruch Hu as rachum vechanun. But what it really means is that when we look at Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s hanhaga, so then we see actions which were a person to be the source of those actions would bespeak the fact that the person had the middah of rachamanus, the middah of chanina, the middah of erech apayim.

העניין הנה אינו שהוא בעל מידות אבל פועל פעולות דומות לפעולות הבאות מאיתנו ממידות ורצוני לומר מתכונות נפשיות לא שהוא יתעלה בעל תכונות נפשיות.

And then the Rambam gives examples. Vihamashal bo if you see it's around line 7 or so. Vihamashal bo an example, for instance

כי כשהוסק דקות הנהגתו בהוויות עוברים במעי אמותם והמצאת כוחות בם ובמי שיגדלם אחר לידתם שימנעו מן המוות ומן האבדון וישמרום מכל היזק ויועילו בשימושם ההכרחיים וכיוצא בפעולה הזאת ממנו ותבוא אל האחר.

It follows and the pe'ulos and the hamoy shel rachamim is from him that is the inyan harachamanut. Ne'emar alav yisbarach, k'mo she'amar ורחמיו על כל מעשיו. So we look into the b'riah and we see how HaKadosh Baruch Hu provided for newborns. The baby comes out, whether it's a baby ba'al chayim, whether it's a human baby, so the baby instinctively knows how to nurse. It's a pela. The baby's a nukam, right? Sh'tika d'kamashma lan. The baby's a nukam and instinctively the baby knows, the baby knows how to nurse. HaKadosh Baruch Hu implanted within, within the mother, within the parents, an instinct that they're instinctively tremendously devoted to the child, to the offspring. So we see how HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed a system where He's, where He takes care. Every down to every last detail is planned and executed where HaKadosh Baruch Hu ensures the survival, the thriving, the flourishing of the neonate, of the baby. If a person were to engage in that, so it would come, it would issue forth from his from the person's middat harachamanut. So in that sense, right, when we look at HaKadosh Baruch Hu's actions, so then speaking anthropomorphically, so we describe HaKadosh Baruch Hu as rachaman. Why this insistence that really we're describing actions of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and not attributing qualities to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu a person is not echad in any real, ultimate, or absolute sense. So a person can have many different qualities. A person can be halevai, halevai that we all would be, a rachaman and a chanun and an erech apayim and a ba'al chesed. A person can have many different qualities. Ay, doesn't that imply some multiplicity in the person? Yeah, of course it does. But we're not echad in any in any real sense of the word. השם אלוקינו השם אחד. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is echad in the most simple, in the sense of basic, fundamental, and absolute sense possible. To attribute toarim insinuates ribui. It insinuates multiplicity. And that's what the Rambam says that we need to understand that when the Torah describes HaKadosh Baruch Hu, again, as rachum v'chanun, really those are just descriptions of what we observe in His actions, in His hanhaga of the b'riah. But it's not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has toarim, has different qualities, different attributes, because that is absolutely not the case. A little bit of a mashal lesaber et ha'ozen. Obviously in this context by definition you can't really have a real mashal, you can't have an adequate mashal, but a little bit of a mashal as follows. Let's say you observe parents parenting a child. And at times, so you see them giving a lot of positive reinforcement and showering the child very overtly with love. And then at other times, you see them being disciplining the child and the ahava is more of an ahava nisteret than it is an ahava gluyah. So it's not necessarily the case that parents are being inconsistent, that they're schizophrenic. No, when the child behaves well, so then the parents give positive reinforcement toward what the child's doing. But if the child is misbehaving, so then they need to communicate a different message to the child. So the parents are being totally, totally consistent, even the same. The child obviously experiences it very differently. He experiences one as a middat harachamanut and he experiences the other as a middat hadin as though the parents have shifted in terms of their modality, in terms of how they're relating to him. In reality, it's the same. It's the same love and concern. and devotion to guiding the child along the right path. So again, with the obvious limitations and inadequacy of any moshal in this context, so we experience different middos in terms of how we process what Hakadosh Baruch Hu does in the world. But that's just in terms of our experience of it, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself is השם אלקינו השם אחד again in the most basic, fundamental and absolute sense. And that's why the Rambam is taking such great pains to explain to us that we're not saying that when we speak of a person, so a person is takeh halevai, is takeh a rachum, is takeh a chanun. But with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we're describing His actions. And so this is part of what the Gemara in Berachos has in mind, there's more to it than this, but part of what the Gemara in Berachos has in mind, you have in front of you ההוא דנחית קמיה דרבי חנינא. אמר, so he was the shliach tzibbur. So he was yored lifnei hateivah, right the same idiom we have in Lashon Hakodesh:

האל הגדול הגבור והנורא והאדיר והעזוז והיראוי החזק והאמיץ והודאי והנכבד. המתין ליה עד דסיים. כי סיים אמר ליה סיימתינהו לכולהו שבחי דמרך.

Have you finished? Have you exhausted all the praises of your Master? למה לי כולי האי. אנן הני תלת דאמרינן, even hagadol hagibor vehanora, the three words that we do say,

אילמלא דכתבינהו משה באורייתא ואתו אנשי כנסת הגדולה ותקנינהו בתפילה לא הוינן יכולין למימרנהו.

If Moshe Rabbeinu hadst in the Torah spoken of Hakadosh Baruch Hu this way and the Anshei Keneses HaGedolah hadn't ordained that we do so in tefilah, so we wouldn't have on our own been able to do that. ואת כולי האי ואזלת. So the question is, why was this anonymous shliach tzibbur, why was he so remiss? Let's say in the bracha of Yotzer HaMeoros:

פועל גבורות עושה חדשות בעל מלחמות זורע צדקות מצמיח ישועות בורא רפואות נורא תהלות אדון הנפלאות המחדש בטובו.

It's a whole long list of shvach that we say. So what was off the mark? What was objectionable about this shliach tzibbur's improvisation as opposed to the matbe'ah hatefilah that we have? So clearly the difference is that in that example from the bracha of Yotzer HaMeoros, we're describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions. And he was using adjectives to, again, impute—he was describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu as He was. So again, that is fraught because it can be misunderstood. And in context of tefilah, we need this double precedent of amino Moshe baTorah and תקנוהו אנשי כנסת הגדולה בתפילה. The Malbim comments on the pasuk of שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד. He says the taitch is as follows: The שם י-ה-ו-ה represents middas harachamim. The shem Elokim Elokeinu represents middas hadin. So again, on the human level, so we experience those as being very different and very distinct. But Hashem Elokeinu, we recognize that ultimately it's not that there's difference, it's not that there's multiplicity. It's Hashem Echad. Coming back to our original question, so when the Rambam writes

מהו נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מהו נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום,

so now we understand what the Rambam was very carefully and precisely conveying. That it's not that mahu chanun. By Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu again is השם אלקינו השם אחד in the most basic, fundamental, absolute sense. השם אלקינו השם אחד in the most basic, fundamental, absolute sense. He's nikra chanun, he's nikra rachum. We again— Terms of how we observe and are able to understand his actions, so we see again what on the human level would be associated with different middos, but it's mahu nikra rachum, it's mahu nikra chanun, but af ata, but with people it's takeh, we do have different qualities. People are multifaceted and multidimensional. We are not echad in any true sense. But l'choira, there's more of an omek here, and that is, so we know that the rishonim, the rambam amongst them, but by no means the only one, tells that divrei torah, they transpose a phrase that chazal use in a different context of דברי תורה כלשון בני אדם. That the torah speaks anthropomorphically. The torah doesn't always speak in the most, intentionally doesn't speak in the most sort of call it the theologically or philosophically precise way, but דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. But there's always a reason for דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. Right? It's obviously only when there's a benefit to דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. So for instance, when one of the examples, if you take a look on the bottom of page two in halacha yud beis from perek aleph of yesodei hatorah, so the rambam writes וכל הדבר כן הוא. The rambam explains earlier in the perek that since hakadosh baruch hu is not physical, he's incorporeal, so everything which is a function of physicality can't and doesn't apply to him either.

וכל הדבר כן הוא, כל הדברים הללו וכיוצא בהן שנאמרו בתורה ובדברי נביאים הכל משל ומליצה הן, כמו שנאמר יושב בשמים ישחק.

So hakadosh baruch hu is not sitting in shamayim and holding his sides as he's laughing uproariously, right? יושב בשמים ישחק, that's not what's happening. ki asuni behavleihem, hakadosh baruch hu is not being angered.

כאשר שש השם וכיוצא בהן על הכל אמרו חכמים דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם.

But we understand, let's say for instance, when we have the when we have the pasuk in the second parsha of shema, krias shema, וחרה אף השם בכם, so again that's an example of hakadosh baruch hu's anger will flare against you because of avoda zara. So that's an example of דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם, but we understand what's accomplished, right? That expression, because the imagery is so vivid, it makes an impression upon us that if the torah were to say, you know, avoda zara elicits midas hadin and a strong midas hadin, it doesn't. וחרה אף השם בכם, a person tzitters, a person begins to shake, which is exactly the reaction we're supposed to have. So we're supposed to have that reaction is supposed to be evoked, and that's why דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. And then, but we're also supposed to recognize that again, that it's an anthropomorphic description, not intended to be taken literally. So there's always a reason for why the torah speaks k'lashon bnei adam. There's something gained by the דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. So why didn't the torah say היות והקדוש ברוך הוא doesn't have doesn't have te'arim, hakadosh baruch hu doesn't have attributes, he doesn't have middos? Because השם אלוקינו השם אחד. So why not say השם השם רחום וחנון וארך אפים? Why not say it as a verb that describes actions? So yitachen, that's also bechlal what the rambam is saying is that the מהו נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון. So if you take a look in halacha zayin here again, the first source that you have on page one or so, וכיצד ירגיל אדם עצמו בדעות אלו עד שיקבעו בו. How does a person train himself? How does a person habituate himself with these character traits, dispositions, until he internalizes them? Ya’aseh ve-yishneh ve-yishalaysh

במעשים שהוא עושה על פי הדעות האמצעיות ויחזור בהם תמיד.

So the Rambam says that the constant reinforcement is how a person internalizes a character trait. Ramchal has later has has the same idea. That maybe initially a person sort of has to push himself to do something, but if a person pushes himself to do something, but he does it time and again, so then that way he trains himself and then it becomes second nature. It becomes something which he internalizes. But it's clear from the Rambam that the mitzvah of halachta bidrachav is that the person should internalize these deyos. Right? That the mitzvah, it's clear from from the Rambam's question that that's what the mitzvah demands, right? That the mitzvah is not only not only regulating how we behave, but it's it's how a person molds his character. Oh, so מה הוא נקרא חנון, right? The Torah is worded klashon bnei adam, מה הוא נקרא חנון, the Torah is worded klashon bnei adam, why? To tell us אף אתה היה חנון. By describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu in these terms, by describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu as rachum, that that impresses upon us that that's our mitzvah. That that our mitzvah is not only not only to to externally act in a way with rachmanus, but to be a rachaman, but to be a a rachaman. And that's why the Torah, that's the significance of the fact that the Torah resorted to the lashon bnei adam. Okay. So in terms of proper emunah, so we're supposed to understand again that it's not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has middos, ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, again, in the most basic, fundamental, absolute sense. He acts in a way that if we were to observe such actions issuing from people, we would say, oh, he's he's a rachaman, he's a chanun, and the Torah describes Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he's nikra rachum in that way to teach us that that's what the mitzvah demands of us, that אף אתה היה אף אתה היה רחום. Okay, we'll sort of skip over part of part of the sources you have and fast forward to the centrality of מידותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא in terms of behavior, in terms of our behavior. And and maybe let's try to to approach it from the following. You have on page three here the Rambam in פרק ב' הלכות תשובה. Midarkei ha-teshuva says the Rambam, so teshuva is a teshuva is a process and therefore a lifestyle. It's not just a a moment, but it's again, it's a process and therefore a lifestyle.

מדרכי התשובה להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני ה' בבכי ובתחנונים.

He's constantly crying out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, beseeching Hakadosh Baruch Hu,

עושה צדקה כפי כוחו ומתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו.

He distances himself greatly from whatever the chet consisted of

ומשנה שמו כלומר אני אחר ואיני אותו האיש שעשה אותן המעשים ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה.

So this, as the noseh keili ha-Rambam point out, this is the Rambam quoting and presenting the Gemara Rosh Hashana of ארבעה דברים מקערים גזר דינו של אדם that צדקה צעקה שינוי השם ושינוי מעשה. So the Rambam says that shinui ma'aseh means משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. Wow, so that's a tall order. So he sort of just drops that and then just leaves us with that. So how exactly... משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה is again that's a very tall order. Okay, so maybe you know what else is the Rambam supposed to say? We all have to sort of personalize that in the context of our lives what משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה means that maybe it's just not nitan, it's not you can't really elaborate it has to be it has to be individualized it has to be personalized but while that is true he touches on something very profound here and that the pshat of the Rambam is as follows. If you go back again to the first halakha with the end of halakha Hey in again it's the first line that you have here of the sources on page one:

ומצווים אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינוניים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים.

So the Rambam listen to this rabosai it's divrei Rambam niflaim. The Rambam describes the midah beinonit as being the derech hatov vehayashar. That's how he characterizes and defines the mehalach b'derachav is that these are the drachim which are tovim and yesharim. Okay now with that in mind and again the Rambam expected us to learn Mishneh Torah k'seder so when we're learning Hilchos Teshuva we've learned Hilchos De'os. When the Rambam says ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה so what the Rambam is saying is that the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav touches lo leguzma on every area and every facet of a person's life. So for instance if you look at the next source here on page three underneath the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva the Rambam gives examples:

הדרך הישרה היא מידה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה מכל הדעות שיש לו לאדם והיא הדרך שהיא רחוקה משתי הקצוות עד שיהיו שניהן

equidistance from the two extremes

ואינה קרובה לא לזו ולא לזו ולפיכך ציוו חכמים הראשונים שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד.

Clearly the Rambam wants the word tamid highlighted here that it requires a constant constant focus that a person is always assessing self-assessing his character traits dispositions umeshaer osan he's calibrating them umekhavein osan he's directing them baderech ha'emtzait keitzad

לא יהא בעל חמה נוח לכעוס ולא כמת שאינו מרגיש

he shouldn't be so excitable that he's easily angered he shouldn't be apathetic ela beinoni. V'chein skipping to the end of the line

לא יתאווה אלא לדברים שהגוף צריך להם ואי אפשר להיות ולחיות בזולתם כעניין שנאמר צדיק אוכל לשובע נפשו.

So a person obviously shouldn't have any hedonistic impulse but on the other hand he shouldn't have an ascetic impulse that interferes. He needs to eat enough to be nourished to be able to function at maximum capacity

וכן לא יהיה עמל ודחק אלא להשיג דבר שצריך לו לחיי שעה כעניין שנאמר

tov me'at latzaddik he shouldn't be lahoot achar hamamon he shouldn't be obsessed with obtaining wealth me'idach gisa he's not supposed to be so disinterested in money that he can't live a proper dignified life ולא יקבוץ ידו ביותר he shouldn't be too stingy v'lo yifazer memono he shouldn't give away everything אלא נותן צדקה כפי מסת ידו but he should give tzedaka according to his means ולא יהא מהולל ושוחק ולא עצב ואונן he shouldn't be lightheaded and frivolous he shouldn't be sad depressed אלא שמח כל ימיו but he should be b'simcha בנחת בסבר פנים יפות v'chein shear de'osav. So if a person really implements this mida of beinonus where he blends the two extremes, it touches on every—there's no area or aspect of a person's life that it doesn't touch upon. So, Kol De'os, when the Rambam says משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה לדרך ישרה. So we said, you hear the Rambam, you know, he gives a tall order without any—no, the Rambam is telling us how a person, a person can have one focus, and through that single focus can be משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. He can uplift and upgrade everything that he does. משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. If a person is conscious of being mekayem the mitzvah of V'halachta Bidrachav, so it literally, lo guzma, right, without, without, without a scintilla of exaggeration, it literally transforms everything you do. It's משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. The Rambam describes that my father's once commented that the Rambam doesn't quote the Gemara in Yoma about how Avraham Avinu was מקיים כל התורה כולה. But he doesn't quote it. But what the Rambam does tell us is the following: that when Avraham Avinu discovered Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's the last source you have here on page 3. Avraham Avinu was engaged in this relentless search for truth, and ultimately השיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מתבונתו הנכונה. So what does the Rambam mean that Avraham Avinu discerned hevin kav hatzedek? What is that? What does that mean? And the Rambam later in this same sefer hamada, in Perek Aleph of Avoda Zara, when he talks about the masoret of Avraham Avinu to Yitzchak, Yitzchak to Yaakov, so

ויעקב אבינו לימד בניו כולם והבדיל לוי ומינהו ראש והושיבו בישיבה ללמד דרך השם ולשמור מצוות אברהם.

The mitzvah of Avraham with the Heh Hayediah. So that was part of Avraham Avinu's discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's clear, if you go back again to the very first source from Hilchos De'os, Perek Aleph, Halacha Zayin, the Rambam says

השמות האלו נקרא בהן היוצר והם הדרך הבינונית שאנו חייבים ללכת בה, נקראת, נקראת דרך זו דרך השם. והיא שלימד אברהם אבינו לבניו.

This is the mitzvas Avraham Avinu was the mitzvah of V'halachta Bidrachav

שנאמר כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך השם.

So this was how Avraham Avinu again, his discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it transformed his entire life. How did it—how did it transform his entire life? Through the mitzvah of V'halachta Bidrachav. So we, Hakadosh Baruch Hu blessed us with ever—mitzvos that help train and help train our de'os and help guide us and and and mold us. But the centrality, the center of gravity of a person's life is that he's conscious of, looking to fulfill and implement, to always calibrate that what he's doing is, is the Derech Hatov Vehayashara or the mitzvah of V'halachta Bidrachav has the potential to be משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה.