The highlight of the prayers for the entire month of Elul all the way up until Yom Kippur is the tefilla of yud gimmel midos – the thirteen attributes of compassion. The Gemarah in Rosh Hashana reveals to us just how powerful this prayer is, and points out that Hashem Himself appeared dressed as a chazzan, wrapped in a tallit, in order to teach Moshe how to say the words properly.
Many questions arise about such a striking description of Hashem. Why did Hashem have to appear as a shaliach tzibur? What is the significance of the number 13?
Moreover, why have we been saying this tefilla for hundreds of years without knowing the answers to these questions? And yet this is the only prayer that, according to the Gemarah, Hashem guarantees we won’t come up empty-handed when we say it.
To begin to unravel the secret of this prayer, we must look to the source. The Gemarah in Maseches Rosh Hashana 17b recounts the entire episode whereby Hashem teaches Moshe this tefillah, and presents three different opinions as to where the 13 midos start from. Tosfos says they begin with the words Hashem Hashem. The Gemarah explains that the first Hashem is an attribute of mercy before a person sins, and the second Hashem is for a person after he has sinned. The Rosh asks why we need Hashem’s mercy before we sin. We didn’t do anything yet. I think is most poignant answer to this question is the one given by the Maharal: Of course we need Hashem’s mercy. We need it every moment of our lives. Even for what seems like the simple act of breathing, we seek His kindheartedness. His compassion is manifested by abundant chessed, as the pasuk says olam chessed yibaneh; the whole world is built on the foundation of chessed. This is why Hashem created the world; He wanted to bestow chessed, as the baalai machshava explain.
Hashem uses the Yud Gimel Midos to enable each person to do teshuva. These are the midos of chanun – which means forgiving someone who really doesn’t deserve to be forgiven – and erech apayim. This gift comes from the world to come, not from this world, and as we recite each word of the Yud Gimel Midos, we have the ability to awaken the upper spheres and bring more and more drops of supernatural blessings down to this world, all the way to the last mida of venakeh when Hashem cleanses us and renews our neshama.
The sefarim tell us that the 13 midos by which the Torah is expounded correspond to the 13 midos of rachamim. In fact, the Rokeach says that when a person learns Torah, he awakens the 13 midos of rachamim. The gematriah of ahavah love is 13. 13 is also the gematriah of Echad – one. In addition, 13 is the number of words in the bracha on learning Torah, as well as the number of words in the bracha of Chanuka. And of course 13 is the age for a bar mitzva, which is when the yetzer tov joins the neshama. Lastly, when aligning the 13 midos with the months of the year, the month of Elul corresponds to the mida of rav chessed. This is what Elul and these awesome days are all about – Hashem’s love and chessed for the Jewish people. And when we cry out these 13 midos with all our heart, we are guaranteed to receive results, paid in full.
by Rabbi Daniel Coren
