Monday, August 25, 2008

He will give you compassion

"He will give you compassion, be compassionate to you and multiply you". This is Moshe's words to the people of Israel at the conclusion of the commandment to destroy a city if all its inhabitants served idles.

Why the double language? "He will give you compassion and be compassionate to you"?

The "Kliy Yakar" explains: in the event that there is an unfortunate necessity to destroy a city, Hashem gives a special blessing. Namely, the destroying will not impact our character, it won't make us cruel. We won't bring the cruelty back home to our families and communities. He will give us compassion, refers not to Hashem's compassion on the people but to the people's compassion to one another.

Only after we are assured of the above, we have Hashem's blessing that we will be compassionate to others, can we receive the next part of the blessing "and he will be compassionate to you".
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We go out and into the world; we are placed in places and circumstances that are very different from where we really want to be. We are there only because of Hashem's desire that we make a home for him in the most unlikely of places.

We pray that "he will give you compassion" that we don't bring the negative influences of the world back home. We pray that our souls remain compassionate, sensitive to spirituality.

That will make us worthy of "He will have compassion on you" by showing us the pleasantness of his radiance.

1 comment:

Anthemites said...

Powerful! I like the vort!