Not a Free Pass: The Torah’s 13 Attributes of Mercy Requires Teshuva (Shemot 34:6–7)

Shemot 34:6–7 — “And Hashem passed before him and proclaimed: Hashem, Hashem, Kel Rachum ve’Chanun, Erech Apayim ve’Rav-Chesed ve’Emet; Notzer Chesed la’Alafim; Nosei Avon va’Fesha ve’Chata’ah; ve’Nakeh—Lo Yenakeh; Poked Avon Avot al Banim ve’al Bnei Banim al Shileshim ve’al Ribbe’im.”

This revelation comes in the wake of the sin of the calf and the gift of the second tablets. Chazal teach that the Holy One “wrapped Himself like a shaliach tzibbur and taught Moshe the order of prayer,” establishing a covenant that whenever Israel invokes these Thirteen Attributes with teshuvah, they do not return empty-handed (Rosh Hashanah 17b; Shemot Rabbah 45:6). The emphasis is deliberate: it is not a mantra that overrides justice but a pathway that calls us back to change; the very purpose of the Attributes is to open the door to repentance rather than to excuse refusal to repent. On the peshat level, the sequence is a self-description of Divine compassion; on the derash level, it is a liturgical path; on the sod level, it is the disclosure of the inner channels of supernal mercy, the yud-gimel tikunei dikna—the “thirteen adornments of the beard” of Arich Anpin through which compassion flows (Zohar III, Idra Rabba; Tikkunei Zohar, hakdamah). The repetition “Hashem, Hashem” signals mercy both “before a person sins and after a person sins” (Rosh Hashanah 17b), meaning precisely that even after failure, return is possible—yet it must be actual return. Its gematria, 26+26=52, intimates the drawing of mercy into the plane of Ban (52), the name associated with Malchut, so that compassion is not an abstraction but enters the world of action (Arizal, Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar Arich Anpin), obligating concrete teshuvah in deed.

“Kel Rachum ve’Chanun” (Kel, G-d of compassion and grace) sets the polarity: “Rachum” [compassion rooted in womb-love] responds to suffering even prior to merit; “Chanun” [gracious] bestows unearned favor (Rashi ad loc.; Yoma 69b). This unearned favor is not license; it is the undeserved opening to begin repair. In remez, “Kel” (אל) numerically 31, is the Name identified with Chesed; “Chesed” itself equals 72, alluding to the Shem Av (72), so that grace here is the overflow of primordial kindness refracted into creation (Sefer Yetzirah 1:1; Zohar I:11b). In sod, these two shine as Chesed-of-Keter and Netzach-of-Keter—mercy’s initial outbreath—priming the lower middot to receive, and calling the human mirror to act likewise: to initiate compassion that awakens change, not to indulge harm. Within the recursive structure of “ten within ten,” Rachum contains ten inner facets (Keter-she’be’Chesed through Malchut-she’be’Chesed), yielding the first “hundred-fold” lattice of compassion that later will percolate through all the sefirot; each facet is an invitation to take one step of return.

“Erech Apayim” (slow to anger) stretches Divine forbearance, the “long face” of Arich Anpin (אריך; same root as erech), delaying judgment to allow return (Rashi; Mishlei 14:29). This is the time-space of teshuvah—the patient interval in which we can confess, abandon sin, regret, and resolve for the future (Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 2:2). In PaRDeS: peshat—patience; derash—“for both righteous and wicked” (Rashi: to the righteous, to multiply reward; to the wicked, to grant space to repent); sod—the lengthening of the supernal channels of the “nose,” which in Zoharic symbolism is the line where strict judgment is sweetened as it is drawn out and diffused (Zohar III, Idra Zuta). “Rav-Chesed ve’Emet” (abundant kindness and truth) binds overflowing love to unbending truth. “Emet” is 441 (=21²), the square of unity, indicating truth that is stable in all directions (Shabbat 55a). Compassion is therefore not permissiveness; it is fidelity to reality joined to lovingkindness. In the sefirotic body, this is Tiferet (Emet) harmonizing Chesed, preventing mercy from dissolving moral contours (Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 7:6: the Divine way is to accept return but not to annul accountability), and for us it means that embodying mercy includes telling the truth about harm while helping one another actually change.

“Notzer Chesed la’Alafim” (preserves kindness for thousands [of generations]) inscribes mercy into time. Chazal read this against “visiting iniquity… to the third and fourth” to teach that “the measure of goodness exceeds the measure of censure by five hundred to one” (2,000 vs. 4; Rashi to Shemot 20:6; Kiddushin 39b). On the sod plane it is the tikkun called “Notzer,” a reservoir that stores beneficence so that even when a generation is unworthy, ancestral merit continues to irrigate the present; that stored good is precisely meant to fund renewed effort, to break inherited patterns by doing teshuvah rather than to excuse their continuation. In the 100-within-10 scheme, Notzer functions as Netzach-of-Keter, the victory of goodness over time, preserving seeds of merit across epochs, so that any child of any age can choose to end the cycle and return.

“Nosei Avon va’Fesha ve’Chata’ah” (bearing iniquity, willful rebellion, and inadvertent sin) ranges across the full taxonomy of failure—“chata’ah” (unwitting), “avon” (intentional), “pesha” (rebellious) (Yoma 36b; Rashi). “Nosei” here does not mean that sin has no weight; it means He “carries” it—holds it in suspension—so the sinner may return before natural consequences calcify (Shemot Rabbah 44:6). This carrying is the mercy that gives us room to do the work; it is not the removal of responsibility but the refusal to slam the door on change. In the sefirot, this is Hod-of-Keter: the Divine willingness to “admit/carry” (hod/hanhaga) the human load until repentance transmutes it, a reality mirrored in teshuvah me’ahavah that turns deliberate sins into merits by retroactively re-wiring intent (Yoma 86b). Within the fractal ten-within-ten, each of the three categories is met by ten inner sub-mercies, totaling a micro-constellation of thirty modalities of bearing and transmutation, each corresponding to a concrete step of repentance in thought, speech, and action.

“Ve’Nakeh” (and He cleanses) is the moment mercy completes its arc; the stain is washed. But the verse does not stop. “Lo Yenakeh” (He will not cleanse) immediately follows. Chazal resolve the dialectic: “He cleanses those who repent; He does not cleanse those who do not repent” (Rosh Hashanah 17b; Rashi ad loc.). Omitting “Lo Yenakeh” tears mercy from truth and becomes theological error; including it guards against the heresy that Divine compassion is a free pass. On the peshat level, this is a warning; on the sod level, it is precisely how the Attribute of Emet stands inside the merciful flow to prevent chesed from devolving into chaos. In the sefirotic map, “Ve’Nakeh” is Yesod-of-Keter—the conduit that purifies and integrates—while “Lo Yenakeh” is Malchut-of-Keter setting boundaries: cleansing is real, but covenantal, activated by teshuvah and by the refusal to idolize our own desires. For us, to embody this means offering forgiveness when there is real repair, and setting boundaries when there is refusal to change; that is mercy aligned with Torah, not fantasy compassion.

“Poked Avon Avot al Banim… al Shileshim ve’al Ribbe’im” must be read with the Torah’s own safeguards: “The sons shall not be put to death for the fathers” (Devarim 24:16) and “The soul that sins, it shall die” unless “the children continue in the fathers’ deeds” (Yechezkel 18:4, 20; Sanhedrin 27b; Rashi to Shemot 20:5; 34:7). The visitation is covenantal consequence across a social organism when patterns are perpetuated, not vicarious punishment of innocents. In sod, “poked” is the re-entry of limits—the feedback of reality—so humanity does not destroy itself under a mistaken banner of mercy. This is the “din demitkaleil berachamim,” judgment braided within compassion, preventing cosmic collapse (Zohar II:162a). Its purpose is corrective: to press us toward teshuvah now so that later generations inherit healing rather than harm.

Notice how the Torah itself protects the Attributes from being treated as a magical incantation: immediately after Moshe’s prostration and plea, Hashem says, “Behold, I am cutting a covenant,” and commands the uprooting of idolatry and the refusal to bond with the nations’ cults (Shemot 34:10–17). In peshat this is historical instruction; in remez it states the condition of the covenant: the Thirteen Attributes operate within allegiance. In sod it teaches that the channels of mercy open when vessels are not polluted by alien worship—the misalignment of desire to false absolutes (Rambam, Hilchot Avodah Zarah 1:1; Zohar III, Ra’aya Mehemna). This is why Moshe becomes the living model of embodying these Attributes: he “stood in the breach” to plead for Israel (Tehillim 106:23) and even offered, “Erase me from Your book” rather than abandon his people (Shemot 32:32), in stark contrast to Noach whom the Midrash critiques for not interceding for his generation (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 11–12; cf. Bereishit Rabbah 30:10). Moshe’s advocacy is not permissiveness; it is the highest form of rachamim—using one’s merit and voice to elicit teshuvah and to lead a people back into covenantal obedience.

From the perspective of Torat HaPenimiyut, each phrase is both ethical instruction and ontological disclosure. “Hashem, Hashem” is Keter’s twofold radiation—before and after sin—revealing that teshuvah is ontologically prior to the world (Pesachim 54a). “Rachum” is Chesed-within-Keter; “Chanun” is the gratuitous overflow of Netzach; “Erech Apayim” lengthens the channels so that Gevurah is sweetened in Bina; “Rav-Chesed ve’Emet” is Tiferet’s harmonization of love and truth; “Notzer” is the temporal storage of good in Netzach; “Nosei” is Hod’s bearing; “Ve’Nakeh” is Yesod’s purification; “Lo Yenakeh” is Malchut’s boundary that protects reality. Through the recursive 10-within-10, these become a hundredfold lattice: Keter-of-Chesed through Malchut-of-Chesed, Keter-of-Gevurah through Malchut-of-Gevurah, and so on, allowing the Or ha’Rachamim to find a precise path into each contour of human life. The Zohar’s Raza d’Razîn explains that the yud-gimel tikunim of the “beard” are threads that “drip” compassion; each hair-path is a measured filament—mercy is abundant, but it is measured and directed (Zohar III, Idra Rabba)—and each filament is meant to draw us toward actual return, not to lull us into complacency.

Gematria deepens the resonance without replacing peshat. “Yud-Gimel” (13) equals “Echad” (one) and “Ahavah” (love), teaching that the unity of the Divine is experienced by us as love; multiplicity dissolves in oneness (Bereishit Rabbah 81:3). “Chesed” (72) aligns with the seventy-two-letter Name, indicating that primordial compassion is the architecture of creation. “Emet” (441=21²) signals that truth is “squared,” stable, all-directional; when “Emet” couples with “Rav-Chesed,” we receive mercy that neither lies about harm nor denies repair. Even the paradox “ve’Nakeh—Lo Yenakeh” hums with inner math: cleansing is real (ve’Nakeh) but gated (Lo Yenakeh) by teshuvah, so that the equation of justice remains balanced (Rosh Hashanah 17b), and for us it means love must travel through truthful repentance to arrive at forgiveness.

On the derash plane, the Sages teach: “A covenant is cut with the Thirteen Attributes that they never return empty” (Rosh Hashanah 17b). That covenant is visibly engraved in what follows: the charge to shatter altars, break pillars, and refuse syncretism (Shemot 34:12–17). Mercy is covenantal, not anarchic. The heresy you allude to—teaching only the first half of verse 7—erases exactly this: it imagines a kindness detached from truth and a cleansing detached from repentance. The Torah’s own balance—“ve’Nakeh—Lo Yenakeh”—protects the Thirteen from such distortion and anchors them as a summons to teshuvah.

Finally, in lived avodah the Thirteen are not merely recited; they are embodied. In peshat, we imitate the Divine by cultivating patience, generosity, and fidelity (Shabbat 133b; Sota 14a), and, like Moshe, by pleading for others while guiding them to change rather than abandoning them or excusing them. In remez, we remember that “middat ha-tovah merubah”—good outstrips punishment—so we tilt our homes toward encouragement that inspires repentance, not indulgence that enables harm. In sod, we align our inner sefirot so that Chesed is married to Emet, Erech Apayim stretches our reactive “nose,” and Malchut sets holy boundaries; we uproot “idols” of the heart and perform the concrete acts of teshuvah—viduy, azivat ha-chet, charatah, and kabalah le’atid—so that the channels we invoke actually flow into healed behavior (Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 2:2). When Israel stands wrapped in tallit and chants these words with the tune of Sinai, we are not casting a spell but stepping into the covenant-flow Moshe heard, trusting the Or haGanuz of compassion to descend through the Thirteen threads of Dikna, through the hundred inner facets of the sefirot, until it reaches the last gate of Malchut and becomes healing in the world (Zohar I:31b; III, Idra Rabba; Arizal, Pri Etz Chaim, Sha’ar Slichot). That is why these Attributes are not a free pass; they are our greatest opportunity—and responsibility—to return and to become agents of that very mercy in truth.

Thus the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy are a ladder that spans heaven and earth: love braided with truth, cleansing coupled with responsibility, a covenant of compassion that neither denies sin nor despairs of the sinner. Ke-El Rachum ve’Chanun, “Who preserves kindness to thousands,” He teaches us to preserve context as well—never to cut the verse in half, and never to cut mercy away from the covenant that gives it life—and to live as Moshe lived, interceding, guiding, and doing teshuvah until the song of mercy and truth is heard in our deeds.