{"id":47361,"date":"2019-01-12T20:44:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T18:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47361"},"modified":"2022-08-05T13:11:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T10:11:40","slug":"forgiveness-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/forgiveness-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiveness \u2013 Then And Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In our chapter, God has become so enraged at the insulting and sacrilegious behavior of the people that he very nearly wipes out the whole Israelite nation apart from Moses (Numbers 14:12). In a final attempt to assuage divine wrath and to save the people from destruction, Moses calls out: \u201cLet the power of the Lord be magnified, as You have declared, \u2018The Lord! Slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness; forgiving iniquity and transgression. [But] He will surely not expunge [transgressions]. [For] He visits the iniquity of fathers upon children, unto the third and fourth generations.\u2019 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to Your great faithfulness, as You have forgiven this people ever since Egypt\u201d (Numbers 14:17-19). <\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s anger seems assuaged, for he responds: \u201cI pardon, as you have asked\u201d. But this is followed by a qualification, that divine punishment will still be meted out on those deserving it (Numbers 14:21-24). As indicated by \u201cas You have declared\u201d the verses in our Chapter, \u201cThe Lord! Slow to anger\u2026\u201d is an echo of what God said to Moses on Mount Sinai in an astonishingly dramatic theophany: \u201cThe Lord passed before him and proclaimed: \u201cThe Lord! the Lord! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in faithfulness and truth, keeping faith for thousands [of generations], forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. [But] He surely does not expunge [all sin] \u00a0(nakeh lo\u2019 yenakeh), [for] he visits the iniquity of parents upon children, and upon children\u2019s children, unto the third and fourth generations\u201d (Exodus 34:6-7). <\/span><\/p>\n

The first part of this passage, which enumerates the \u201cThirteen Attributes of [God\u2019s] Mercy\u201d is familiar to Jewish worshippers as the key refrain in our penitential prayers (Selihot). The prayer quotes only up to the first word nakeh<\/em> of the full phrase nakeh lo\u2019 yenakeh<\/em>, found both in Exodus 34:7 and in Numbers 14:18. This results in the word nakeh<\/em> alone meaning that God <\/span>will<\/span> ultimately \u201cexpunge\u201d all transgressions, the opposite of what the full phrase nakeh lo\u2019 yenakeh<\/em> means in its biblical context. <\/span><\/p>\n

This seemingly contradictory use of a biblical text, is dealt with in the Talmud (Bavli, Yoma 86a). Neither \u201cHe will expunge\u201d (nakeh<\/em>) by itself, nor \u201cHe will not expunge\u201d (lo\u2019 yenakeh<\/em>) by itself would have been an adequate description of how God deals with repentance and forgiveness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture employed a doubling of the verb — which normally only indicates emphasis — in the expression nakeh lo\u2019 yenakeh<\/em> to communicate an important theological teaching: While God may not forgive those who do not repent, He most definitely will forgive those who do repent. And, since \u201cthe Gates of Repentance are always open\u201d (Midrash Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:12), we have here a brief but powerful expression of the enduring Jewish view of how God deals with us as fallible human beings. While we acknowledge that God does sometimes evince a seemingly stern, judgmental and even punitive attribute (middat ha-din<\/em>), we chose to emphasize God\u2019s merciful and forgiving attribute (middat ha-rahamim<\/em>) in our ongoing prayers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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