Introduction
We are studying Chapter 145, "Tehillah LeDavid", which is entirely praise of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and His guidance in His world. In this section, we will explore the verses describing the Creator's attributes of mercy: gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in kindness, Hashem is good to all and His mercy is over all His works, leading up to the thanksgiving of all creations and of the pious. We will see how Hashem's entire conduct - even that which appears to us as strict judgment and awe-inspiring wrath - is fundamentally rooted in mercy and graciousness.
"Gracious and Merciful is Hashem" - Two Dimensions of Kindness
חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם יְהֹוָה, אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וּגְדׇל־חָסֶד׃ - Hashem is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
The Ibn Ezra explains: "Gracious" (chanun) means to save one who cries out to Him. "Compassionate" (rachum) means to protect His servant so that he does not stumble. These are two distinct dimensions: graciousness is the aspect of salvation for someone already in distress, while compassion is the protection from the outset, so that he does not stumble and has no need to reach a state requiring salvation in the first place.
The Radak adds: The attributes of "gracious and compassionate" represent the goodness and righteousness stemming from Him, may He be blessed, and it is concerning these that "they shall express and sing." In terms of graciousness, Hashem grants favor to His creatures and provides all their needs. In terms of compassion, Hashem has pity on His creatures, shows them mercy, and shields them from harm.
"Slow to anger" (erech apayim) - Hashem is patient and does not punish immediately. Our Sages noted why "apayim" is written in the dual form, and taught that His patience extends both to the righteous and to the wicked. Therefore, when counting the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy according to the holy Ari, "erech apayim" is counted as two distinct attributes rather than one, because the Holy One, Blessed be He, shows forbearance both to the righteous and to the wicked.
"Abounding in kindness" (u-gedol chased) - The letter dalet is vocalized with a kamatz katan (kamatz chatuf), so it is pronounced not "gedal" but "gedol." Not only Ashkenazim and Yemenites, who pronounce every kamatz with an "o" sound, but Sephardim as well read this as "u-gedol chased." Its meaning is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, magnifies His kindness toward human beings far beyond what they deserve to receive.
The Malbim explains: "Hashem is gracious and compassionate" - all of Hashem's actions stem from grace and mercy. Even what appears to us as awesome terrors and strict judgments, know that even when He punishes the wicked, He is still slow to anger. He does not punish immediately; rather, He gives another chance and another opportunity, showing great patience. Furthermore, He abounds in kindness if they repent.
"I Am Amazed That the Holy One, Blessed be He, Waited Two Years for Him"
Rabbi Idan, director of Arachim in Bnei Brak, related a story of a young man who had a Din Torah before Rav Nissim Karelitz and lost the case. This fellow was a lawyer, and he decided to sue Rav Nissim Karelitz in secular court. His father tried to stop him: "Why are you acting foolishly? What are you meddling with? Fire! 'Their bite is the bite of a scorpion, their hiss is the hiss of a fiery serpent.'" But he would not listen, and dragged Rav Nissim Karelitz to secular court. The judge heard arguments from both sides and ruled that there was no cause of action whatsoever and that Rav Nissim Karelitz was completely in the right, and with that the matter ended.
Two years later, that same man was riding a motorcycle when a semi-trailer truck ran over him, and they had to collect his remains from the road. Truly terrifying. It is told that Rav Nissim Karelitz, who knew the father, went to comfort him during the shiva. The father said to him: "You should know how much I spoke to him, how much I pleaded with him not to clash with the Torah, but he refused to listen." Then he added an astonishing statement: "Do you know what amazes me? I am amazed that the Holy One, Blessed be He, waited two years for him. From what I saw of his deeds, I wondered how he lived even one more day. A person disgraces a Gadol b'Yisrael and drags him to trial before a judge who desecrates Shabbat publicly - how could anyone dare to do such a thing? And how did the Holy One, Blessed be He, grant him two years?"
This is "the abundance of Hashem's goodness": even when punishing the wicked, He is slow to anger, does not punish immediately, and is abundant in lovingkindness if they repent - and if they do repent, the Holy One, blessed be He, is ready to accept them even if they have sinned grievously. Similarly, there was a story of a man who informed on someone else to be drafted into the army in his place, and later died of rabies. There were several incidents that the Chofetz Chaim recorded and waited to see how the Holy One, blessed be He, would exact retribution.
The Nelson Approach: Those Who Refuse to See
Only someone who lives with an accounting, who knows that for everything there is a judgment, a Judge, and an afterlife - only he truly sees. One who is not like this, even if something dramatic happens to him between morning and noon, pays no attention: "It is unrelated; these things happen, many people have experienced the same without any connection." And if it had happened to you without it, what would you have said? These are the kinds of evasive questions people ask.
The question was once raised whether the promise that missiles would not fall on Bnei Brak was still valid. The answer given was: this is not a theoretical discussion at all; the facts speak for themselves. No missiles have fallen in Bnei Brak. Regarding what the Chazon Ish said - to this day, not a single missile has fallen in Bnei Brak. Did Saddam Hussein not know where Bnei Brak was? Does Hamas not know exactly where Bnei Brak is? There have been countless sirens here, but no missiles. Yet that person persisted in asking: "And what would have happened if a missile had fallen?" But none fell! Still, to him, this remains a challenge.
This teaches you: when a person wants to see, his eyes are open, and in everything he sees Divinity. But one who refuses to see, even if Hashem were to reveal Himself and say, "I am Hashem" - he would say, "I see nothing." Consider Nelson, the famous admiral of the Royal Navy. It is told that in one battle, his ships were surrounded on all sides, and he could not afford to accept defeat. He asked for his telescope, held it up to his blind eye, looked in every direction, and said: "I see nothing - attack!" The ships sailed forward, opened fire, and by Hashem's grace, they even succeeded. There are people whose entire lives follow Nelson's method: they hold the telescope to their blind eye and see nothing. And if you did not see it - then it must not exist; and if you did not see it - then the Holy One, blessed be He, is not there and does not exercise Providence. Open your eyes; it is in your best interest to see. One who refuses to see ultimately only loses.
Waiting for the Wicked - and Sustaining Him
In the sefer Tehillot Maharitz, it is explained regarding the verse, "Gracious and merciful is Hashem, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness": the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like that of flesh and blood. When a person wrongs you, it is extremely difficult to be patient with him; and if an opportunity arises to repay him in kind, it is no simple struggle to refrain from giving him double. If one were to speak to a person about bestowing kindness in return for the evil done to him, he would reply: "Such matters belong to angels; we are merely human beings."
Yet consider the conduct of the Holy One, blessed be He: He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger - and at that very same moment, "great in lovingkindness." At the very time He shows patience to the wicked, He also sustains him, granting him life, sustenance, and abundance. Not only does He wait for him - for had He merely waited, like placing someone on "standby" in prison until his judgment is clarified, that alone would have been extraordinary. Instead, the Holy One, blessed be He, seats him in a palace and showers him with abundance while He waits for him. It is a wondrous thing to see just how gracious and merciful Hashem is.
"Hashem is Good to All" - A Goodness Incomparable to Human Kings
טוֹב־יְהֹוָה לַכֹּל, וְרַחֲמָיו עַל־כׇּל־מַעֲשָׂיו׃ - Hashem is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.
Ibn Ezra comments: a mortal king cannot possibly be good to more than a few. To how many people can a king bestow goodness? If he were to distribute bounty to everyone, he would surely exhaust the royal treasury in short order. Furthermore, a human king has mercy only on his loyal servants and those close to him. But the Holy One, blessed be He - "Hashem is good to all," and furthermore, "His mercies are over all His works," over all His creatures.
Radak adds: "Hashem is good to all" - even toward the various species of wild animals, domesticated beasts, and birds, Hashem is good and merciful. This is the aspect of being "good to all." From here, Radak notes, it is proper for a person to emulate these ways, and one must not harm or destroy living creatures except when necessary, or to protect oneself from harm.
A person is walking down the street, sees a cockroach, and just to be "stringent," steps on it. The holy Ari asks: Why extinguish a life? Is it threatening you? Is it about to harm you? And even if you killed this cockroach, did you finish off all the cockroaches roaming the city of Bnei Brak? You killed one cockroach - did that solve the cockroach problem? The holy Ari says: A person should not kill any living creature unless there is a necessity, because this creature is a creation of Hashem. If there is a mosquito in the house bothering him, he is certainly permitted to kill it; if there are rats, he should certainly kill them. But to kill creatures for no reason, without necessity and without need - about this the holy Ari says one must be extremely careful. And this is what the Radak said: A person should not destroy life except for a need or to protect himself from its harm.
And so the Gemara relates regarding Rabbeinu HaKadosh, who admonished his maidservant not to sweep away the rodents along with the household rubbish using a broom, but rather to leave them alone, saying to her: It is written, "And His tender mercies are over all His works."
The Malbim: Hashem Devises Means to Bring Them Back in Teshuvah
The Malbim explains: "Hashem is good to all" - not like flesh and blood, who is good only to his servants, and takes vengeance upon and hates those who rebel against him, for such is human nature. But with the Holy One, Blessed is He, it is not so; rather, Hashem is good to all - even to the wicked. As we have seen, Hashem is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, waiting even for the wicked and bestowing good upon them, and He devises ways to bring them back in teshuvah. "And His tender mercies are over all His works" - Hashem has no desire to destroy His world, but rather has mercy upon His handiwork and His creatures. He has mercy on those whom He created, and devises means so that none be banished from Him, to sustain the world, "for He does not desire the death of the dead, but that he return from his ways and live."
Torah Insights Revealed in a Dream
The author of HaKtav VeHaKabbalah, in his work HaKtav LeChayim, cites an interesting interpretation here, which came to him in a dream. As noted in Mishnat HaChalomot, many Sages recorded in their books explanations, straightforward readings, and resolutions to difficulties that were revealed to them in dreams, and they would write, "And this I saw in my dream." Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin has an entire book, Resisei Lailah, which consists entirely of Torah insights and novellae revealed to him in his dreams. And so we find in many sefarim.
It is told of Rav Ovadia Yosef that he once woke up in the middle of the night, washed his hands, went to his desk, wrote a few lines, and went back to sleep. When asked what had happened, he replied that a difficulty had been resolved for him in his dream and he found an answer within the dream, so he arose to write it down lest he forget it. People who are an embodiment of Torah see Torah even in their nightly dreams. And someone who is an embodiment of vanity and trivialities sees soccer or news flashes in his dreams - each person according to what he is attached to. Rav Tzadok HaKohen says: When a person wants to know where the depths of his heart are invested, let him examine what he sees in his dreams - that is where the depths of his heart lie. And Rav Chaim Kanievsky once woke up in the morning and made a siyum with wine. His grandson asked him: "Grandfather, you have not finished yet!" He told him: "I already finished in my dream." He had seven pages left from his daily study schedule, and he said: "I completed them in my dream; bring the wine."
"The Good One, for Your Mercies Have Not Ceased" - Goodness Without Limit
In HaKtav LeChayim, the author explains regarding "Hashem is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works": There are people of good nature who love to do good and love to help. Yet, for some reason, on a particular occasion, such a person might not wish to do good, and even if pressured, he will refuse. The same is true regarding the trait of compassion: a person may be very merciful, yet at times in a particular situation he is unwilling; he acts cruelly, stiffens his neck, and shows no mercy. But with Hashem, this is not so: "Hashem is good to all" - all are equal before Him to receive His goodness, and there is never a situation in which He does not do good. "And His tender mercies are over all His works" - no reality can be found where Hashem performs any act of cruelty.
To be sure, there are things perceived in our eyes as cruelty, but by the same token, one could say that a surgeon is cruel when removing a tumor from a patient: after all, he cut open his abdomen, rummages around inside, and removes organs. One who fails to grasp the situation would think this is cruelty, while one who understands what is happening knows that this is tremendous kindness, for he is giving him life. So too with the Holy One, Blessed is He: His mercies are over all His works, and there is no aspect whatsoever in which He performs an act of cruelty.
Therefore we say in the Shemoneh Esreh prayer: "The Good One, for Your mercies have not ceased, and the Merciful One, for Your kindnesses have not ended." With Hashem, mercy has no boundary - that He should have mercy up to this point and beyond that refuse to have mercy; nor does kindness have a boundary - that He should bestow it up to this point and beyond that withhold it. Rather, "the Merciful One, for Your kindnesses have not ended, the Good One, for Your mercies have not ceased."
Midrash Shocher Tov: In This World to All, in the World to Come to the Good
The Midrash Shocher Tov states: "Hashem is good to all" - even to the wicked. "And His mercies are over all His works" - so that none be banished from Him; Hashem has mercy on them so that they do not remain outcasts, and therefore devises means to bring them back in repentance. However, the Midrash emphasizes: "Hashem is good to all" - in this world, but in the future to come, "Do good, Hashem, to those who are good."
That is to say: Do not mistakenly think that if Hashem is good to all, and here you see that things go well for the wicked person in this world, it will also be good for him in the World to Come - heaven forbid! For if so, a person might say: Do whatever you want, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die"; or do whatever enters your mind, since the Holy One, blessed be He, is forgiving and waives sins, after all, this wicked person is living comfortably here. The Midrash says: No. "Hashem is good to all" - in this world. But in the World to Come, Hashem will do good solely to the good. For otherwise, there would be neither justice nor a Judge, and no fear of Hashem.
Rav Mazuz notes: "ורחמיו על כל מעשיו" contains the acronym (out of order) of Akum (the nations of the world). That is, Hashem has mercy on everything: on animals and on the nations alike. As it says, "And should I not spare Nineveh?", and as the Holy One, blessed be He, said: "The work of My hands is drowning in the sea, and you are singing shirah?!" Thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy even on the nations of the world - "and His mercies are over all His works." May Hashem have mercy on us and on all His nation Israel, and return the captives to their homes, with Hashem's help.
"All Your Works Shall Thank You, Hashem" - Who Truly Gives Thanks
יוֹדוּךָ יְהֹוָה כׇּל־מַעֲשֶׂיךָ, וַחֲסִידֶיךָ יְבָרְכוּכָה׃ - All Your works shall thank You, Hashem, and Your pious ones shall bless You.
Radak explains: "All Your works shall thank You" - even the living creatures that lack intellect, for You have also prepared and provided their food and all their needs. However, since they themselves lack the capacity to give thanks, the one who gives thanks on their behalf is man, who contemplates them, and it is considered as if they themselves thanked You.
And who are those who truly give thanks? "And Your pious ones shall bless You." The chasidim - those who conduct themselves toward Hashem with piety - are the ones who constantly contemplate the deeds of Hashem, and they are the ones who bless Him. Superficial people, by contrast, see no need to give thanks, and pay no attention at all to what there is to be thankful for. The pious, when they observe the marvels continuously renewed in the creatures and their exquisite order, among animal and plant life, bless Hashem. Therefore, says Radak, Chazal instituted a berachah for each matter according to its context: one who sees such-and-such recites such-and-such a blessing, and so on in every area, in order to give thanks, praise, and laud Hashem for every creation and every action He has performed in His world.
And what is the definition of "chasidim" (Your pious ones)? We have mentioned several times that chesed entails giving and bestowing, giving without bounds. This is why gedulah (greatness) is identified with chesed, for giving on a grand scale is an endless bestowal - "Yours, Hashem, is the greatness, the power, and the glory," corresponding to "chesed, gevurah, and tiferet." Gedulah is chesed. And so Radak explains: Chesed denotes an abundance or surpassing degree in something. Those who constantly contemplate the deeds of Hashem and serve Him with greater devotion are the chasidim, who serve Hashem with an added measure of attentiveness and deeper contemplation in His service, blessed be He, and they bless Hashem in everything that befalls them.
And Chazal taught: "One who wishes to become a chasid should fulfill the matters of berachot (blessings)." "And Your chasidim shall bless You": one who attains the level of a chasid is meticulous with blessings.
Accepting the Heavenly Judgment - and Then Praying
There is a very important lesson here: a person must thank Hashem, blessed be He, for everything that happens to him. Even if something unplanned occurs, even if an unpleasant event befalls him, first and foremost he must justify the Heavenly decree and accept the divine judgment: "Master of the Universe, I know this is from You, and I accept the Heavenly judgment with love." Only afterward may he pray and request: "Master of the Universe, it would be easier for me if things were otherwise, as I see them." But the very first step is to justify the Heavenly judgment.
It is written that when a person justifies the Heavenly judgment upon himself and accepts it with love, it possesses tremendous power to remove harsh decrees, strict scrutiny, and a thousand and one tribulations from him. "Master of the Universe, I raise no grievances, I make no complaints; thank You for all that You give me. And now, I ask for such-and-such."
And the most important point in this: first of all, we must recognize the true address. For when someone mistreats a person, the instinctive reaction is to attack him - but what do you want from him? He is not the address; he is merely an emissary. Perhaps an ill-intentioned messenger, but an emissary nonetheless. Therefore, first and foremost, know: this is from Hashem. "For Hashem said to him: Curse!" King David declared - and thereby merited to become the fourth leg of the Heavenly Chariot. Understanding that the address is from Him, blessed be He, is the primary step. And after that, one must accept the justice of Heaven: I deserve this, as an atonement for my sins, for a thousand and one things - I deserve it, and I justify the Heavenly decree. Only then do I pray: Master of the Universe, remove this affliction from me. A prayer offered in this manner possesses far greater power than that of someone who comes to pray out of grievance and complaint, protesting, "Why did they do this to me?" and "I do not deserve this!" "And Your devout ones shall bless You" - the pious man always blesses and thanks Hashem for whatever befalls him.
The Malbim: There Is No Evil in Reality from the Creator's Perspective
The Malbim explains: "All Your works shall thank You, Hashem" - the Holy One, blessed be He, made all of His creations with utmost perfection, and there is no evil in existence from the perspective of Hashem Who created them. "And Your devout ones shall bless You" - the pious (*chassidim*), who act beyond the strict requirement of the law, are the ones who draw down from You the abundance of blessing.
We have mentioned several times that blessing here is not in the sense of a human blessing Hashem - for Hashem does not need our blessings, nor does blessing apply to Him in the conventional sense, as one blesses someone who lacks something. Rather, blessing Hashem means acknowledging: You are the Source of blessing, and all abundance of blessing flows from You. This is the inner meaning of "Blessed are You, Hashem."
In summary: The verses before us portray the Creator's entire conduct as one of mercy: "Gracious" to save the one who cries out, and "merciful" to guard against stumbling; "slow to anger" toward the righteous and the wicked alike; "and abundant in kindness" - giving far beyond what one deserves, to the point that even while He waits for the wicked to repent, He continues to sustain him and shower him with bounty. "Hashem is good to all" - unlike a flesh-and-blood king who bestows goodness upon only a chosen few, His goodness reaches even the animals, from which derives man's obligation not to destroy living creatures needlessly. "And His mercies are over all His works" - without limit and without exception, even if an act appears to our eyes as cruel, like a surgeon operating to save a patient's life. Yet, while in this world Hashem is good to all, in the World to Come He will bestow good only upon the good - so that no one may claim, "There is no judgment and there is no Judge." And finally, "All Your works shall thank You, Hashem, and Your devout ones shall bless You": all creations bear witness, but the one who actually gives thanks is the contemplative *chassid*, who is meticulous with his blessings, lovingly accepts the judgment of Heaven upon himself, and only then prays - thereby drawing down the flow of blessing from its ultimate Source.