Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 3 Chapter 1 Mi Kel Kamocha Hashem is Allm

Shalom. Today we are starting again learning to devor. We had two classes so far. one introduction and [clears throat] u one um more about the qualities of Hashem of of kindness raim um mercy compassion and u today we're starting chapter one of to dvoro we are again using this wonderful book um of of Rabbi Viller's commentary who said that there there are qualities of mercy of Hashem and the first one is mam who is like you the words mam have the words k which means god but also it has the meaning in Hebrew as power who is all powerful like you. And now we say that this is a quality of Hashem of kindness. From here we learn that the name of God is we say K just not to pronounce name of Hashem unnecessarily we change and one letter and it becomes K like like a nickname. The name El of God represents kindness. Unlike the name Elohim, Elohim which represents strict judgment, L for some reason represents kindness and it may be because L means all powerful God in singular. Elohim means all powerful God plural. The meaning of Elohim is the master of all forces. However, we know that from that um exact fact that there are many forces in the world and there is one God above all. People came to make a mistake and that is because people saw various forces operating in the world and they said how is it possible that all these forces have one source. Maybe these forces operate on their own and perhaps there is even a fight between these forces and they they came to honor and serve various forces in nature. They saw the sun, the powerful lifegiving ball of fire in the sky and they saw the earth and they thought there is the the god of sun and there's god of earth and they saw the clouds that block the sun and they said there's a fight between the sun and the clouds and therefore they said there's a there's a god of the clouds and then they saw the wind comes and carries the clouds and they said maybe there's the god of the wind. It's more powerful than the clouds and the clouds are more powerful than the sun and the sun is more powerful than the earth. And they start making the whole calculation what is stronger than what? And therefore if we need something let us go to the minister of that power and we will ask him and we will serve him. And that is where their mistake came from. And being that the presence of all forces caused people to worship idols and think that there are various powers in the world. That name Elohim which is a holy name, the master of all forces but the the the fact that it is plural causes judgment to come into the world. When people make a mistake and they don't recognize the true God and instead they worship many forces, they are punished for it. And uh the strict judgment and justice in the world comes specifically because of the multiplicity of powers. However, when we have the name of means singular power. The all powerful God that is kindness because the ultimate God, the God Almighty is kind, is good, is merciful. As soon as we direct our attention away from him, that is where we see evil. When we face away from God, away from God is equivalent to evil. And therefore the name is kindness. So when we say me who is God allmighty and all merciful as you. Uh additionally the name power represents kindness because as it says who is powerful [clears throat] power is only um valuable and counted if you are able to control your um desire to do bad and you force yourself to do good, that is a good power. But if you let your desires, your bad character traits, your anger to take control of you, yes, you have a lot of power to do bad, but that is not called power. That is called weakness. Anyone who uses their power for bad for selfish motives is considered a weak person. So that means we say who is God who is kind and merciful that is ill. The one who uses his power to do good. Kindness is power. The only power that counts is the power to do good. So we say who is as powerful as you God? Who is as kind as you God? So Rabil explains the word Kel has meaning in the sense that Hashem is all powerful and is full of kindness. For example, the second blessing of Amida prayer is called strengths. Hashem, you are almighty. We say you are the powerful one. You are mighty, Hashem. And it talks about God's might. And yet it also speaks of Hashem's for example it says abundantly able to save his greatness is only for the purpose of helping all of Hashem's power is only for kindness. So God's name means all powerful at the same time means all devoted for the purpose of helping helping. So when we ask ourselves am I a strong person and that depends on how much good I do. Do I use my power only for good? As much as pain I cause people, that's how weak I am. The less pain I cause people and the more good I do, the more strong I am. Because when a three-year-old beats up his one-year-old sibling, we don't call that strength. We call that a tantrum. We call that a weakness. We call that bullying. We call that insecurity. We call that uh childish behavior. [clears throat] And then the parent comes and protects defends the one-year-old against the three-year-old. And the par [clears throat] the parent is the powerful one. Now, Raban Miller continues, "We know that the world was created yesesh me out of nothing. But there is another principle that goes even further. The world was created for kindness." So there were two aspects of the creation of the world. Number one, something out of nothing. And number two, for the sake of kindliness. Yes, Hashem created the world [clears throat] that didn't exist. He created something out of complete nothingness. But why did he create the world? He created the world to do kindness to all living beings, animals and humans. So everything in the world is made for the purpose of helping. This is reflected in Birkaton Zan. He is the God that provides food. We we call Hashem. Hashem, you are the one that feeds people and animals. In describing Hashem, we don't say he is the creator of the world. Rather we say he is the god that feeds his creatures. That is more important than the creation of the world something out of nothing because the purpose is more important. All God's might is invested in feeding the universe. Everyone eats only because Hashem is feeding them. This is also reflected in the language of the blessing before we say blessed is he who is compassionate on the land. First and foremost, we bless Hashem that he has mercy on the land. Blessed is he who is comp compassionate upon his creatures. So, Hashem is compassionate on the earth. Whatever he does is to make the earth better. And that we see when we learn about the cycles in nature, the water cycle, the nutrients cycle. And uh we see that Hashem created the world with ability to sustain itself, to renew itself. As much as we try to damage the earth, the earth bounces back. Even after the industrial revolution and centuries of polluting the air, we still can live healthfully, breathe beautiful, delicious air, drink healthy water, view nature, and the nature is as beautiful as it always was. No matter how much garbage we dump on earth, Hashem makes it that the bacteria come and decompose everything, turn everything back into soil and grass and trees grow from the garbage that we created. And all the uh abandoned houses and civilizations slowly get overrun by vegetation and they covered up and it's as if they're not there. And the beautiful garden of Hashem is back in its original state. On top of it, Hashem is also merciful towards his creatures. He made the earth so resilient and strong because he knows people want to continue living. Yes, people make a mistake by polluting the environment and Hashem sends the cleaning lady and that's the earth itself to clean up the mess. He sends the bacteria. He sends the plants and all the little uh creatures to eat up all the garbage, eat up all the damage and the world is as new. Why? Because Hashem cares for people. His compassion is not only upon the earth but to make people happier. And we continue in that prayer. Blessed is he who pays good reward to those who fear him. And that means out of all the creatures in the world, Hashem pays special attention to those that recognize him. As we explained in Sharim, the word fear of Hashem means recognition of Hashem. The word is similar to the word. Fear is similar to the word seeing, recognizing. So, Hashem created the entire world for the purpose of having connection with people, a relationship with people. And therefore those who recognize him fulfill that purpose. And yes, Hashem's mercy and kindness is infinite upon all his creatures. And it's hard to do more than infinite. But we learn that Hashem's kindness and mercy and care for those that have a relationship with him, those that do recognize him and those that do fear him is even greater than for the rest of creatures than for the rest of humanities. Hashem is especially interested in those who fear him and that is the amra, the Jewish people and the righteous Gentiles. those that follow the seven mitzvot that were given to humanity in times of no. The word ke which denotes Hashem's strength comes to teach us that as great as his power is without end. That's how great his kindness is also without end. Hashem is all powerful and he uses all that power for kindness. That means he is all kind. The word means both things. And that is why the the Navi the prophet begins with me. Who is God like you? He is all powerful and he is all merciful. Now the author Rab Mosha Cordova elaborates this. Mida demonstrates that Hashem is a king who allows himself to be insulted. On top of being kind, he is kind even after being insulted. He tolerates embarrassment. He tolerates and shame that people show toward him in such a degree that our mind cannot grasp it. Hashem has the power of a king. He's the king of kings of kings. He could crush his oppono opponents yet nevertheless he is an anav a humble being. God he's all powerful but at the same time he is humble. We explained that power means ability to control one's character. Someone insults me. If I am weak, I will reply, I will become angry and answer back. But if I am strong, I will stay quiet. God could crush his opponents. Yet nevertheless, he is humble. He allows people to insult him. He displays a degree of tolerance savanut that is beyond our ability to understand. This is similar to a parent who's taking care of a child and uh the child hits the parent. The baby kicks the parent and the parent can get angry and say, "What? I'm taking care of you. I'm changing your diaper. I'm feeding you and you are making a mess. Not only you're not saying thank you, but you are throwing the food at me. You're kicking me while I'm changing the diaper. You are screaming and you're trying to get away and you're upset and you expect me to continue taking care of it of you." And we understand, of course. We as parents have to take care of our children. Even if they make us upset, even if they resist, even if they insult us, that's something that we understand because this is our baby. We love them. This is our future. But for God, he doesn't depend on his creatures. We as parents depend on our children because they will give us pleasure when they grow up. they will take care of us when we become older. But for God, he's taking care of us without waiting for anything in return. Plus, Hashem implanted in us the desire to have a child to take care of him. But Hashem is independent of all desires. Hashem doesn't need anything and he still does good to us and we rebel against him and we insult him and he still remains kind and merciful and giving. Behold, nothing is concealed from Hashem's view. He sees everything without question. And furthermore, there is no moment in which a man is not supported in his existence by the strength of the most high which he bestows upon him. Where does our strength come from? From Hashem. When we rebel against Hashem, we're using the strength that he gave us. Yes, parents gave birth to the child. But once we give birth to the child, the child is an independent being. He breathes on his own. His heart beats on his own. [clears throat] He is alive on his own. If, god forbid, parents abandon the child, someone else can take care of the child. The child is there independently of parents. But we are dependent on God every single moment. If God stops thinking of us, giving us the power, we will disappear. And God continues providing us with power, with life every moment. And we use our own life. We use the power that he gives us to go against him. And that shows the great strength of God. to continue giving kindness to us. Hashem constantly showers all forms of goodness upon people. The ability to see, hear, talk, and think. Even when a person is being insolent withah to Hashem, he does so with the powers of thought and speech that Hashem has given him. Despite the fact that Hashem knows what the person is thinking and saying, Hashem doesn't take away the ability to speak or think, even though he's using those powers against him. So someone might say maybe God didn't see that this person went against him. And we're learning that God sees everything. It's not like a parent who gave the child candy and the child walked away and in a whisper mumbled, "Oh, I hate you. The worst was you wor the worst parent." The parent didn't hear it. So the parent is happy but Hashem hears everything. If we are upset at our lot, we are upset at the world. We're upset at Hashem. Even just in our thoughts, Hashem sees, he hears, he understands, and he patiently smiles at us and gives us all the benefits like before. You will find it can never happen that a person sins against Hashem that at the same moment Hashem is not giving him a shower of benefits to help him continue to exist and to move all his limbs. There is never a moment when a person is just by himself independently. Even after we had a good meal and we think that's it for the next six hours I don't need God because I have food in my stomach even then Hashem is giving us life every moment we are breathing the heart is pumping the food is being digested our brain is working our nerves are sending signals our muscles are working there is never a moment that we are independently free from God. [snorts] At that moment that the man is doing a sin, Hashem is giving him the power to do the sin. He gives him life. He enliven all his faculties, eyes, ears, mind. Hashem might well say, "If you want to sin, don't sin with what I'm giving you. I'm going to take back my gifts. You're misusing them. If so, a person would collapse as soon as he wanted to sin. As soon as a bad thought comes into a person's mind, Hashem withdraws. He doesn't have to send uh lightning to strike the person. All he needs to do is just stop providing the person with life and strength. And the person will not only collapse, he will disappear as if he never existed. Yet Hashem continues giving them giving him strength. We will pause over here and we will continue on this topic next time. Thank you for joining. Have a great day.