Moses Asks Why the Righteous Suffer and God's Thirteen Attributes

From the measure of the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He, you learn that His mercies are abundant in the world. And why did He say, "Give charity to the poor and the destitute"? He says this only concerning a person who did things improperly and a penalty of evil was imposed upon him for up to four generations, as it is said, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:7). At that hour Moses said in his heart, "If so, there is a righteous man to whom it goes ill." Moreover, Moses our teacher reasoned by an a fortiori argument within himself and said in his heart, "Perhaps not all Israel desire anything but only not to stand in the ways and commandments of the Holy One, blessed be He, Heaven forbid, and their sentence has been sealed against them, and behold they are struck at every hour." They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who married a woman and led her from city to city and from province to province until he brought her to his province and to his royal city; and when his wife sinned against him, the king would strike her. What did his wife do? Immediately she ran to her father's house. The king's father-in-law said in his heart, "Did the king strike my daughter for nothing, unjustly and without law?" Immediately the king's father-in-law sent a messenger to the king and said to him, "Tell me, what is the matter in which my daughter sinned against you, and what is the thing you wish my daughter to do according to your will so that she may attend to all your needs?" Immediately the king sent his father-in-law many kinds of fruit and folded five letters together corresponding to them, and the thing he wished his wife to do and the way she had sinned against him he wrote in the fifth letter among them. When the messenger reached the king's father-in-law, he read the first letter and found written in it, "These fruits are of such-and-such a kind," and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth, until he reached the fifth letter and found written in it the thing the king wished and how his wife had sinned against him. Immediately the king's father-in-law called his daughter and said to her, "My daughter, the thing the king wishes is true, and the king loves peace and loves justice, and you sinned against him, and he struck you justly and lawfully." So it appeared regarding Moses at that hour, as it is said, "And now, if I have found favor in Your eyes, show me now Your way" (Exodus 33:13). Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, descended to the depth of Moses' intent and showed him generation after generation and its sages, generation after generation and its leaders, generation after generation and its prophets, generation after generation and its expounders, and showed him His measures by which He conducts Himself in this world and His measures by which He conducts Himself in the world to come. And He said to Moses, "Behold, you say, Why is there a righteous man to whom it goes well and a righteous man to whom it goes ill, a wicked man to whom it goes well and a wicked man to whom it goes ill, as you said, Show me now Your way." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Moses, you cannot stand upon all My measures, but behold I will make known to you some of My measures: when I see people who, although they have no praise of Torah and good deeds, neither in their own deeds nor in the deeds of their fathers, yet only because they stand and give thanks and bless and praise and multiply supplications before Me, I attend to them and double their sustenance," as it is said, "He has turned to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer" (Psalms 102:18). And it is written, "And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you" (Exodus 33:19)—it does not say "My goodness" but "all My goodness"; these are the thirteen attributes, as it is said, "The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and acquitting" (Exodus 34:6-7). For here it says, "And I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before you" (Exodus 33:19), and there it says, "And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:6). When Moses saw that the measure of the Holy One, blessed be He, is one of lovingkindness and of mercy, immediately he wrapped himself and stood in prayer before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped, and he said, If now I have found favor in Your eyes, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray, go in our midst, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance" (Exodus 34:8-9). Another interpretation: had it said "My goodness" and not "all My goodness," I would say there are no days of the son of David here; but when it says "all My goodness," there are here the days of the son of David, may he come speedily in our days, Amen, Selah.