One Yom
Kippur, Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, the Kohen Gadol, entered the Holy of Holies
to burn the incense offering, when he saw a vision of Hashem sitting on His
throne of glory.
“Yishmael,
my son, bless Me,” He said.
Yishmael
responded, “May it be Your will that Your mercy conquer Your anger and that
Your mercy overpower Your other attributes and that You behave with Your
children with the attribute of mercy and treat them with leniency.”
His vision
then concluded with the Almighty nodding His approval to the blessing.
Rabbi
Yochanan quoted Rabbi Yossi: How do we know that the Holy One blessed be He
prays? As the verse [Isaiah 56:7]
states, “And I shall bring them to My holy mountain and gladden them in the
house of My prayer.” Since it does not
say, ‘their prayer,’ rather, ‘My prayer,’ we deduce that the Holy One blessed
be He prays.
What
does He pray? Rav Zutra bar Tuvia quoted
Rav: May it be My will that My mercies conquer My anger and that My mercies
overpower My other attributes and that I attend to My children with the
attribute of mercy and that I deal with them leniently.
Sometimes
we disappoint ourselves with our religious behaviour. We don’t measure up to our own
self-expectations. You know you could have
done better. You should have done
better. And so you conclude that Hashem
must be even more disappointed. That
kind of attitude leads to a downward spiral where you become so obsessed with
your failures that your entire life begins to stagnate.
Stop
beating yourself up. The Almighty’s love
for you is greater than the love any mortal parent has for their child! As Rav teaches, He is forever reminding
Himself – so to speak – that His mercy must rise above everything else. Anything you did, He has long since forgiven
you. It’s time to press reset and get
ready for a bright future! Any lingering
feelings of self-doubt are the machinations of the yetzer hara (inner
tempter), who doesn’t want you to get up and move on to wonderful
accomplishments in life!
But isn’t
it strange that our Gemara talks of Hashem praying? Who’s He praying to, Himself? Is He simply reminding Himself? Does that constitute prayer? Obviously, Hashem doesn’t need to remind
Himself of anything. And He doesn’t need
to pray. What is the message of the
Gemara?
To pray in
Hebrew is ‘lehitpalel,’ which is a reflexive verb form. Why? Our job in this world is to be imitatio
Dei – we must strive to emulate G-d.
When we pray, we’re talking to Hashem.
But at the same time, it’s almost as if we’re holding a mirror up and
asking ourselves how we’re doing in terms of our duty to be children of the
Divine.
And so the
Gemara is saying that if you want Hashem to have mercy upon you, first you need
to hold up that mirror and ask how you’re judging others. Sure, they could have acted a little better
towards you. But had you behaved the way
they did, don’t you think you’d want a little leniency? The Gemara’s message is, if you stop judging
others so strictly and, instead, cut them a little slack, the Almighty will cut
you some slack and shower you with His mercy!
Did
Yishmael the Kohen Gadol see the Almighty nodding to him? Of course not. Not even Moshe Rabbeinu was able to see
Hashem’s face, “for no man can see My face and live.” Nodding to another person
implies that the two of you are in agreement.
The Divine nod was a symbol of Yishmael’s understanding that the outpouring
of mercy was to begin with him. ‘If
we’re on the same page,’ G-d responded, so to speak, ‘you have my guarantee
that I too will shower My mercy and compassion upon you.’
Don’t ever
allow your yetzer hara to convince you to become stagnated, because you
believe you’re spiritually inert. You’re
never stuck – Hashem’s mercies are boundless!
May you treat others with abundant mercy, and rest assured that the
Almighty will forever shower His mercy upon you!
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