GOD'S MERCY
Leon's Commentary on the Chapter 34 Verse 6 of the Book of Exodus
"And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," Ex 34:6
This verse from the Bible is repeated many times in the prayer service of Yom Kippur. It's one of my favorite verses but it has puzzled me for a long time.
On the one hand I'm comforted when I think that God is merciful. He will forgive my sins and will take away my aches and pains. On the other hand I still have aches and pains even after I've prayed and fasted all Yom Kippur.
This raised the question in my mind, "if God doesn't take away my suffering then how does He express His mercy?
The answer is that God's mercy, graciousness, long suffering ness, abundant goodness and truth applies not to me as an individual but to all the universe, in its widest sense. It applies to the universe as a whole, in its entirety.
God's mercy, and other qualities, isn't like man's mercy. God is merciful. to everybody and everything all the time and for all time. Man's qualities of mercy and grace etc are in addition to himself. He may or may not have these qualities. God's qualities are Him. (this idea has been explained by Maimonides in Guide to the Perplexed part 1) The creation of the universe is an expression of God's mercy.
The crucial, and difficult question is whether the universe is infinite.
The thing that makes this such a crucial question is that if it's permanent then it must be perpetual. In other words it must continue without His intervention. The question is important also because if the universe is permanent and perpetual God's intervention in the conduct of the universe would negate perpetuity.
In an infinite and perpetual world it's natural that God's mercy applies to the universe and not to individual man. In an infinite and perpetual world it's natural that man's mercy and not God's applies to healing suffering and maintaining life. It's natural that man should seek better ways to relieve suffering and promote his well being. Not to expect God to intervene to relieve suffering and prolong life.
In an infinite and perpetual world God's mercy applies to healing the universe and maintaining its existence. In an infinite and perpetual world we must consider the possibility that individual birth is as necessary as death for the survival of the universe.
Birth is an expression of God's mercy so is death. Birth, life and death continue all the time in an infinite world, with no intervention of God.
Man constantly asks God to intervene but that would bring an end to the universe. So God does not intervene. It's very comforting for us to think that in His mercy God relieves our aches and pains, but it's much more comforting for us to think that our aches and pains are necessary for the survival of the universe.
Instead of looking for God's intervention to take away our suffering let us rather enjoy our suffering while at the same time looking for rational ways to relieve suffering.