“God (Elohim) spoke to Moses, saying to him, ‘I am YHVH. I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), and did not allow them to know Me by My name YHVH. I also made My covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourn, where they lived as foreigners. . . .”
“Moses related this to the Israelites, but because of their shortness of breath and their hard work, they could not hear him.
“God (YHVH) spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Go, speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he will let the Israelites leave his land.’ Moses spoke, interrupting the revelation. ‘Even the Israelites will not listen to me,’ he said. ‘How can I expect Pharaoh to listen to me? I have no self-confidence to speak.’
“God (YHVH) then spoke to Moses and Aaron. He commanded them regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so they would be able to get the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 6:2–13)
Rashi (ibid.) explains: “God commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the Jewish people gently, to sustain them.”
We need to understand how the events described in the text follow one another. If the Jewish people did not listen to Moses because of the suffering they endured under Pharaoh, why then should Moses and Aaron have to be commanded to lead them gently? Furthermore, what was to be gained from leading them gently, if Pharaoh was still torturing them, God forbid?
In the morning service, in the blessings over the Torah, we pray, “Grant us today and every day grace, loving-kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who look at us, and bestow beneficent kindness upon us. Blessed are You, God, Who bestows beneficent kindness upon His people Israel.”
We seek grace first because grace is given without regard to merit, even to someone who, God forbid, does not deserve to be saved, as it is written (Sanhedrin 108a; Genesis Rabbah 29:1), “And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8) Noah was not worthy of salvation, but nonetheless he found grace in the eyes of God.
After grace we ask for loving-kindness, for as we know, loving-kindness is boundless, extending equally to the undeserving as to those who are deserving of it. Mercy, however, contains an element of judgment. Mercy is not made up entirely of judgment, nor is it all boundless forgiveness that embraces the undeserving. Mercy is extended only to someone who is at least partially deserving of it.
We need to pray in this particular order because it is obvious that we ourselves are quite undeserving. Not only are we unable, because of the trouble we are in, to bear examination by a judgmental eye and expect any deserved reward, but even under examination in a merciful light our lives are so undeserving that we must resort to begging grace and freely given kindness. All of this is because of the terrible suffering we endure. So we pray first for grace and loving-kindness, which will save us from the agony that makes it impossible for us to reach any level of entitlement. Only then will we have the resources to become deserving of at least a little mercy. Not only does the profound suffering of our current circumstances make it impossible for us to busy ourselves with Torah and do everything that we are supposed to do, but even the duties we do perform are devoid of living spirit. They are done cheerlessly, grudgingly, and without joy, God forbid.
When our teacher Moses said to God, “O Lord, why do You mistreat Your people? Why did You send me? As soon as I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he made things worse for the people. You have done nothing to save Your people,” (Exodus 6:1) God (Elohim, the attribute of Judgment) answered, saying “I am God (YHVH, Mercy).”
In this verse God of Judgments speaks to Moses, saying that as the God of Mercy He is foretelling that the Jews will be treated mercifully, that the severity of their suffering has earned them a reprieve, and that their exile will end earlier than originally ordained, as is well known. The verse is telling us that even God of Judgments had to admit that the Jews had earned some remission, in the form of Mercy mixed with Judgment.
When Moses conveyed God’s message to the Jews, however, the Jews would not listen to Moses “because of their shortness of spirit and their hard work.” Their response was cheerless and joyless. This explains why they needed to be led with a more gentle hand. Whenever the Jews earned God’s mercy only through suffering, their response was always “short of spirit,” and devoid of life. This is why they could not hear Moses: because of the lack of spirit that affected everything they did. Therefore, “God (YHVH, Mercy) spoke to Moses and Aaron. He commanded them regarding the Israelites.”
Earlier in the chapter it was God (Elohim, Judgment) Who first spoke, saying, “I am God (YHVH, Mercy).” In the second part of the text, however, it is God—Merciful—Who speaks right from the outset, saying, “He commanded them regarding the Israelites.” And so, Rashi explains, “God commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the Jews gently.” It was imperative to change the order of things. At this time the order could not be Judgment followed by Mercy, because the Jewish people had to be led gently right from the beginning.