Mercy

 We need mercy.  We want mercy.  In moments of anguish, or deeply introspective times, we beg for it.  

Mercy is important because we feel weighed down by inadequacies, short-comings, and sins.  Mercy has the quality of being not just forgiven by the other but, at least as important, by the self.  

Two are really one.  As we are so flawed and needy, we crave validation from another.  That is where mercy comes in: when someone forgives us we are healed.  When we are granted mercy we become whole.  Two becomes one when our fellow forgives us and the fractured part of our self becomes one, no longer broken.  That is why we need mercy.

If when we require mercy and are granted it, shouldn’t we do the same for others?

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev stood before the holy ark on the sacred day of Yom Kippur.

“You forbid us to write on the Holy Days – except to save a life.  Therefore, O Lord, even You may not write on this day – except to write our names in the Book of Life.”  Bernard Greenfield

Pray for someone else.  Pray for someone who needs it just as much as you do.  And then give them the healing that they require just as we long for the same. 

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev was asked, “Rebbe, we have so many different mesechtot, tractates, in the Talmud that deal with so many different topics.  Why are there no tractates in the Talmud about service to God, or love of humanity, or fear of God?”

Said Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, “My dear student, there are no mesechtot on these sacred ideas because God sends great and holy men in each generation who teach and instruct us on these paths.”