Hashem’s Mercy
Hashem created the world in order to reveal His mercy, because if He hadn’t created the world, He would have no one to whom He could reveal His mercy…
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches (Likutei Moharan I:64) that Hashem created the world in order to reveal His mercy, because if He hadn’t created the world, He would have no one to whom He could reveal His mercy.
What do we learn from Rebbe Nachman’s teaching? We come to the conclusion that if Hashem created the world and all the creations therein in order to reveal His mercy – and you and I are His creations – then Hashem created us in order to have mercy on us and to show us His mercy.
With this in mind, each of us has to tell ourselves:
1) Hashem created me in order to have mercy on me and to show me His mercy;
2) Everything that happens in my life from A to Z is a result of Hashem’s mercy on me.
3) Since everything Hashem does is mercy for me, I have to thank Him for everything that happens in my life.
Look what happens as soon as we live our lives with this one tiny but amazingly important bit of information that Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches us: Not only are we happy, calm, collected and internally tranquil, but we crown Hashem! We invoke upon ourselves a massive portion of Divine light and compassion that brings infinite blessings into our lives.
Hashem doesn’t need us at all – He doesn’t need our prayers and we’re certainly not doing Him a favor by observing His commandments. The Torah and its commandments are Hashem’s mercy on us. Hashem gets along fine without us. But He wants us to have healthy souls, souls that are suitable receptacles for Divine blessings.
Imagine that someone comes along and gives you a two-hundred twenty pound sack filled with flawless 2- carat diamonds that are worth $25,000 a piece. A 2-carat diamond weights 400 milligrams. A 220 lb sack holds 250,000 2-carat diamonds. At $25,000 each, your sack is worth 6.25 billion dollars! Can you imagine? There’s just one slight technical difficulty – you’re not strong enough to pick the sack up. Isn’t that a shame? Hashem gives us Torah and mitzvoth in order to make us a worthy spiritual receptacle to hold a sack full of spiritual diamonds worth much more than our $6 billion sack. Everything He does is absolute mercy.
We especially have to remember Hashem’s mercy every time before we pray. Here’s what we must review in our minds:
1) Hashem created me in order to have mercy on me and to show me His mercy;
2) Everything that happens in my life from A to Z is a result of Hashem’s mercy on me.
3) I am now about to pray to H who loves me and who has mercy on me.
What’s the significance of reviewing these 3 points before we pray? Many people complain to me that they’ve been praying for something for a long time and their prayers go unanswered. There’s a tremendous difference between asking something from someone who really loves you and cares about you without the slightest doubt in your mind, and between someone that you’re not sure of. There’s a big difference in asking something from someone that’s totally in love with you and between asking something from one of your superiors at work, who might not care about anyone other than himself.
Before we pray, we therefore have to strengthen ourselves with the emuna that Hashem loves us and that He has infinite mercy on us. This helps us to pray with happiness, with confidence, and with fervor. This is what makes prayer meaningful. Knowing that Hashem created us in order to have mercy on us and to show us His mercy, that everything that happens in life from A to Z is a result of Hashem’s mercy on us, and that we am now about to pray to Him makes prayer so much more meaningful and effective. This is the mindset that the great tzaddikim pray in, and that’s why their prayers are so very effective.
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