G-D, G-D, merciful and gracious… ( Ex. 34:6; Selichot prayers)

I recall as a child being given a ‘magic slate’ on which I could write or draw anything I wished – and then erase it by lifting a flap and lowering it. But what can even a child expect for two shillings! Never again was it quite the same as when it was new. Gradually, with continued use, several marks and imperfections engraved themselves on the ‘slate’ until eventually it was too stained to use enjoyably.

If, as a child, I could have been transported to the 21st century and experienced electronically erasable smartboard touchpads and computer screens where, at the press of a key, I could have a typing surface as pristine as if it were new, I would have been in dreamland!

What if one day we could erase unwanted material to the extent that the slate was not only as good as new but even better – a new, improved model!

Enter the shalosh esrei midot, the Thirteen Attributes of G-D’s Mercy that form the highlight of the selichot services from day one until Yom Kippur.

When, having begged G-D to forgive the people for the golden-calf debacle, Moses is invited to ascend Mount Sinai to receive the second tablets, G-D reveals Himself in a unique vision. Moses had dared to ask G-D: “show me Your glory!”. G-D “descended in a cloud and stood with him there… passed right by him and declared: HVYH, HVYH, G-D, Merciful and Gracious…”

To examine the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in depth would need several essays, not just one. But by far their most extraordinary aspect is the two successive evocations of the four-letter Ineffable Name of HaShem (the sacred letters of which I have purposely transposed and which we pronounce A-DO–NOI).

Nowhere else in Scripture is this supreme Name read twice without interruption. It is true that there are several instances of the four-letter Name appearing twice, but in every other instance one of the Names (almost always the second) is vocalised differently and pronounced........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)