Chapter 14 Free Unlimited Giving (for one who is humble enough to ask)

It is very difficult to receive from the Attribute of Judgement... If not through a great and awesome
merit...What is not so from His attribute of Kindness, His way is to do goodness with the good as well as the evil...

On the holiday of Purim, our custom is not to distinguish to whom we are giving tzedaka, whether they deserve or not. Other days we have to do an accounting lest we end up giving  less to a person who needs it more. But some days we simply give freely...

When we stand in front of G-d and demand something...Shouldn't we worry that G-d may inspect us and say - aren't you embarrassed to show your face around here, you dirty lowly creature...This is why we ask from G-d's attribute of Kindness and then he doesn't pay attention whether we're clean or dirty.

What we say in the Avinu Malkeinu prayer [during the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur] - "Do for us in the merit of... and in the merit of... but at the end of the whole list of merits we say: Do with us a kindness and free gift... We realize that even the long list of merits may  not suffice for prayers to be answered. So we ask from G-d's unlimited Kindness to answer us without an accounting. Of course, we don't expect such a response to be with "thunder and lightening" [a series of miraculous occurrences on our behalf] but rather a more modest fulfilment of our prayers based on our own humble status.

Prayer must be preceded by a personal accounting so that we should know that our needs can only be fulfilled from G-d's attribute of Kindness that overlooks our many faults. We have to know what G-d sees when he looks at us and how He nevertheless gives us everything we need.

(The text in italics are the words of Derech Mitzvosecha by the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. The bolded words are Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's commentary as heard on his shiurim on hashefa.co.il. The rest is my commentary.)

Chapter 13 The Truth about Truth

As it says:"Moses hastened [to prostrate himself]"(Ex. 34:8), for he saw G-d attribute of Truth.

G-d's attribute of Truth is so awesome that even Moses could not stand erect in its revelation

There's a general inquiry about why G-d's attibute of Truth is included as one of the 13 Attributes of Mercy. On the one hand, Truth is quick to point out faults. On the other hand, sometimes you see a person walking in the street and to you he might look like a big tzaddik, "saintly person", dressed in a long jacket and a beard coming down to his knees. So if he's really a tzaddik so he must be judged very strictly in all his deeds. But then comes the attribute of Truth and points out that this person has merely an external saintly appearance but inside he's a rotten apple. This is the compassion side of Truth.

Similarly, when one sees only the external appearance of the world, of current events and politics, he might become angry about all that he hears. But when one examines these realities according to the attribute of Truth, one sees a list of empty words, made-up stories, and fairy tales of the Brother Grimm. For instance, if I see the Prime Minister as a state leader, I might be outraged to hear of his doings. But from the perspective of Truth I see he's after all only a small person so a small person can also steal a little bit sometimes...

So we see that it's possible to find merit in G-d's eyes even when He's looking at us with strict judgement. Our G-d always includes kindness and judgement together and always leaves a way for improving the situation and fixing mistakes.

(The text in italics are the words of Derech Mitzvosecha by the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. The bolded words are Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's commentary as heard on his shiurim on hashefa.co.il. The rest is my commentary.)

Chapter 12: Contingency Plan: Sweetening Judgements

But if one asks for a present when G-d is garmented in His attribute of judgement, this is a mistake. Although the Creator can do kindness even from strictness since all his attributes are multi-faceted, each attribute includes in it all the other attributes but this requires great merit to transform Judgement to Kindness for Judgement is characterized by finding fault in everything as it says "even the heavens are not pure in His eyes"(Job 15:15)

Even the skies are not considered "clean" according to strict judgement: "Even in his angels He finds fault" (Job 4:18). G-d's attribute of Judgement looks at an angel and finds the angel's left wing is not well kempt. 

One whose job it is to grade essays for their grammatical correctness so every error they find they must mark with a check, whether it's in verb-noun agreement, or mixing between male and female words. But when this same grader is having a conversation with friends, he is not obligated to point out every grammatical error of the person speaking to him. If the person mixes up their tenses, they are not obligated to tell them: "I'm now giving you a minus for improper tenses." This would be extremely anti-social behavior. 

And so we see that even the most critical personage can reveal a more compassionate side and overlook certain mistakes depending on the person they're speaking with. Similarly, chassidim said that sometimes there's an individual who is not as careful as they should be about the details of the mitzvos, but their service of Hashem with great joy causes their transgressions to be overlooked. The grader relates differently to a student and differently to a friend.

Chapter 11 :The Metaphor of a King and Ministers

Now we can understand the question asked by the Rivash (Rabbi Yitzchak ben Sheshet 1326-1408, Algiers) to the kabbalist Don Yosef how can the kabbalists refer to particular attributes when saying the blessings of the prayer since these are not G-d Himself. And Don Yosef answered him that it's like asking the King to order the minister of the Treasury to give him money, or the minister of Justice to look into his court case and acquit him...

However, in the metaphor, the king's ministers are separate entities, while in reality, the attributes are the King Himself as he garments Himself in different appearances. So in fact, it's the same person as he is garmented in different activities.

In the metaphor, there is a minister of Justice, of the Treasury, of Health. When speaking to G-d it's not that way -it's the same G-d garmented in different garments. He's the judge, the wittnesses, the giver... Anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of dealing with government bureaucracy, knows that it's not malicious but one usually sits for a long time waiting to speak to a certain clerk only to be told that in fact one has to go to a different room and speak with a different clerk who is in fact responsible for this matter. G-d also has "clerks", but they are He Himself in garments.

 However, as explained previously, special merit is required to get the King to be generous when he is garmented in judgement, which is why it's important to have the right intentions.

There are are certain garments that are appropriate for certain occasions. Disregarding the context of the attributes is like one who is invited to a formal dinner and shows up in pajamas. It's possible for King to have compassion even when He's sitting in judgement, but one has to find the compassion from inside the severity itself- this requires special merit [as will be explained].

Chassidus teaches us that we are always talking directly to G-d Himself, and there is no other, "ein od milvado" (Deut. 4:35). But we also have to appreciate that since the world is made up of different beings, G-d garments himself in different character traits when interfacing with the world. These character traits are true faces or appearances of G-d that we have to take into account when addressing Him.

Chapter 10 Divine Relativity

And this is what the Sages meant, "why do Israel pray and are not answered - since they do not know to contemplate the Name (appropriate to their prayer). The Name refers to the essence of G-d as He garments himself in the appropriate divine attribute.

G-d wants to give us what we're asking but we usually want it much quicker. In our kaddish prayer we say in "our lives, in our days...", we're certain the redemption will come but we don't want it to come in 500 years. In general the Torah speaks in a subtle form. The Torah warns us that if we do not follow the Law then we will swiftly be lost from the land and the Talmud tells us that in actuality this took 850 years so this is considered "swiftly" in G-dly- terms. There is a certain style of understatement in the Torah. Like the Torah describes birth pains, probably the greatest pain that a human can experience, as "sorrow". So also when it commands us to love G-d with all our hear and all our soul, how much more so must we feel this love. To hasten our answer we must burst through limitations. This is connected with our intentions when we call out to G-d with the appropriate Name.

Our main concern is to have our prayers answered in real-time. But to draw down a miraculously speedy solution to our challenges and issues requires special intentionality. To intentionalize the Name means to have the proper appreciation for the special opportunity we have in saying the Name in conjunction with a particular blessing. The intentionality encompasses two important realizations:1) that G-d's very essence concerns Himself with my personal well-being 2)That he must garment Himself in particular garments - contract Himself into a more worldly interface to address my requests

Chapter 9 The Vowelizing of G-d's Names and Spoiled Cats

In order to relate properly to G-d in prayer, we are told we have to turn only to Him for our needs. At the same time in each of the 19 blessings of the Standing prayer, there are specific intentions to think about while saying G-d Name. (We don't change the pronunciation of the name ever, but we have in our thoughts different intentions in each of the 19 blessings).
For instance, in the blessing, "You grant knowledge..." * (The fourth of the 19 blessings) we are supposed to have in mind G-d four letter name with the vowelization of the "patach: (-) under each of the four letters. This vowelization is connected with G-d's attribute of Wisdom. Our blessing of  "You grant knowledge..." causes the light of G-d to garment Itself in the attribute of Wisdom in the highest worlds and to come down the chain of descent of worlds until it also comes down to this world and gives someone additional brain power. Nevertheless, we are only addressing the One G-d in each of these blessing, and each one of his attributes are only a tool, like an axe in the hands of the wood chopper.

Sometimes a person is engaged in their work, let's say an author is sitting and writing a book and all of a sudden someone comes and asks him for a glass of water. If he really loves the person asking so he will stop what he's engaged in and turn to fulfill the person's wish. But this requires special merit. Sometimes a cat comes and asks us for food at a moment when we're most busy with something else, so if we really love the cat we will stop what we're doing and feed it, but if not so the cat will have to wait. Sometimes G-d tells us to wait a moment, but a moment in his eyes is a thousand years in ours. There was a man and a woman that were very much in love in their youth. Eventually they got married when he was 85 and she was 83... We want him to turn to our needs much quicker.

To think of each blessing and its corresponding attribute is our acknowledgement  that G-d has to turn to us and interest Himself in our finite needs. He sets aside 19 blessings each one corresponding to a different need, each blessing is more potent when we acknowledge that it is not "automatic" but rather a singular opportunity

Chapter 8 A Grave Warning

Various people and movements were misled by the physical images in kabbala, most particularly the Sabbateans and Frankists in 18^th century. It is easy to get misled by the metaphors and forget that what is being spoken about in all these images is the One Above. And this is how certain people developed a very grotesque and twisted view of the spiritual realms and the Infinite One Blessed Be He.

Furthermore, when one opens up a siddur with kabbalistic intentions, it's possible to approach it as some kind of engineering manual. Each page discusses along with each blessing or prayer, the scheme of certain names or sefirot being elevated to such and such a place. So that one could think that they are connecting a red wire to a green wire, in some complex machine. And this obviously not the case, since what is being discussed are aspects of G-dliness; the names are names of G-d Himself.

This is also an issue especially in the more poetic descriptions of G-d found in the Torah and the prayer liturgy, that sometimes incorporate the most material imagery in some texts include actual pictures of these images. For instance, the Divine Presence or Shechina is described as a woman with feminine features, and in certain Torah literature these features are described in great detail. Nevertheless, the Divine Presence is also just another name for G-d.

These "faces" of G-d, the wires and cables that lead from infinitude to our finite reality are not Him. He dwells in them and we must recognize His presence there in order to bridge the gap between our physical mortal existence and Him.