Parshat Ki Tetze - 5764

Divine Mercy and Compassion

This week's Parashah, Ki Tetze, is replete with Torah Commandments regarding our interaction with the Animal Kingdom. Among them is "Lo tachsom shor b'disho," You shall not muzzle your ox while it is treading out corn (Devarim 25:4). This Law of the Torah may be based on the fact that the feeding instinct is too strong to forcibly suppress it without causing "psychological" harm, "tzaar," to the beast. This prohibition of causing pain to living animals is not only a prohibition of the Torah; it is also a prohibition of the "Sheva Mitzvot bnei Noach," the Seven Noahide Laws, Commandments incumbent upon all human beings as Sons of Noach, self-understood laws planted within the human conscience.

Another is "Shiluach HaKan," the Divine Command not to take young, nesting birds while the mother bird is present, but rather to send away the mother bird first (Devarim 22:6-7). It is tempting to say that HaShem, the "Author" of the Torah is showing Mercy to the mother bird, for the maternal instinct seems to be universal in Nature, and this is the general direction followed by commentators who attempt to provide "Taamei HaMitzvot," Reasons for the Commands.

However, the Talmud in Masechet Berachot, cautions: “The one who says 'Your Mercy extends even as far as the Law of the Bird's Nest' is to be silenced." And the Talmud gives two reasons for this seemingly odd provision of Torah Law:

The first is that to make such a declaration would amount to being "matil kinah b'maaseh bereshit," introducing a false element of limitation into the Creation of the World; namely, that Divine Compassion extends only as far as the "Law of the Bird's Nest." Whereas, we know from other sources, such as the praise of HaShem uttered by King David in the "Ashrei" Prayer, ("Tehilim"/Psalms 145), "You open Your Hand, and satisfy every living thing Willingly!" that HaShem does not play favorites, and allows every living being that He Created, from the smallest to the largest, to satisfy its needs with a full measure of His Will!"

The second is "that he falsely implied that the Attributes of the Holy One, Blessed be He, are based on 'Mercy,' whereas they are in fact only 'Decrees'."

The latter notion is very puzzling. For if these laws, so strongly suggestive of "Rachamim," of Compassion, are only "Gezerot," "ethically neutral decrees issuing from a Divine Source, and requiring obedience only because of the Authority of the One Who made the decrees, the implication is that the Giver of the Laws is not a "Merachem," is not One Who has Mercy. But this cannot be!

For when the Thirteen Attributes of HaShem are listed, they include "Compassionate and Merciful." When the Prophet Gad offers King David the choice of being punished for a particular sin by G-d Himself or by other men, David immediately chooses to be punished by G-d "for G-d is full of Mercy, but let me not fall into the hands of Man."

We are of course not required to have an answer to this question. After all, our understanding of how Eternal and Omniscient G-d conducts the world cannot, by definition, be complete, by virtue of our very mortality, "Lo yirani ha-adam, vachai," "No human being can 'see Me' and live." ("Shemot" 33:20)

But one approach to an answer might be that HaShem's Mercy is so all-encompassing that we cannot grasp the "big picture." Another, quoted by Rav Yissachar Yaakovson in "Bina BaMikra" in the name of Dr. Yoseph Wohlgemuth, with historical overtones, is that the statement about "only decrees" was a reaction to and part of the struggle with the Early Christians, who focused exclusively on HaShem's Love and Mercy, and devalued the Commandments.

And we are assured several times in the Haftarah that is read this Shabbat, by the Prophet Yeshayahu, that indeed HaShem is a "Merachem," One Who has boundless Mercy, and Who conducts His World with Mercy and Compassion:

Yeshayahu 54:7-8

"For but a small moment have I forsaken you,
But with great Compassion will I gather you."

"For only an instant of wrath did I hide My Face;
And then only for a second,
But with everlasting Kindness will I have Mercy upon you,
Says HaShem, your Redeemer."

Yeshayahu 54:10

"For even if the mountains would depart,
And the hills would be moved,
My Kindness would not depart,
And the Covenant of My Peace will not be moved,
Says the One Who has Compassion upon you, HaShem."

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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