The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy — where the verse, the prayer, and the Zohar part ways
The Thirteen Attributes — “the LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious…” — are recited at every Selichot and through Yom Kippur. But the prayer recites only part of the verse: it stops at ve-nakeh (“and He acquits”), reading it as the thirteenth attribute of mercy — while the Torah’s own sentence continues lo yenakeh (“He does not acquit”), which is justice. The same three words are mercy in the prayer and justice in the Torah. Set the verse, the prayer, and the Zohar’s reading side by side, and the seam shows.
1. The verse · Exodus 34:6-7 (after the Golden Calf, the LORD reveals His attributes to Moses)
JPS 1917: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.’
King James (1611): And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Notice Both public-domain English renderings translate ve-nakeh lo yenakeh as justice — “that will by no means clear the guilty.” They differ on la-alafim: JPS reads “unto the thousandth generation,” the KJV “for thousands” — thousands of generations, or thousands of people? The Hebrew leaves it open.
2. The prayer · the Thirteen Attributes as recited (Selichot, Yom Kippur)
…forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and acquitting. [The recitation ends at ve-nakeh. The verse’s continuation, lo yenakeh — “He does not acquit” — is left off.]
Notice The liturgy “begins with the first Adonai and concludes with ve-nakeh” — taking the word as the thirteenth attribute of mercy (“and He acquits”). The Torah’s justice-clause is not denied; it is simply not the prayer’s petition. The prayer asks for the face of mercy.
3. Counting to thirteen · Rabbeinu Tam (Tosafot); the covenant of the Thirteen (b. Rosh Hashanah 17b)
How does one reach thirteen? Medieval authorities divided the verse differently. The standard count follows Rabbeinu Tam (Tosafot): the two utterances of the Name — “the LORD, the LORD” — are counted as two distinct attributes of mercy (mercy before one sins and mercy after, per the Talmud’s own explanation at Rosh Hashanah 17b), and the count runs through to ve-nakeh as the thirteenth.
Notice The Talmud (b. Rosh Hashanah 17b) records a covenant: that the Thirteen Attributes, when recited, “do not return empty.” The counting is not pedantry — it is the structure of a prayer believed never to go unanswered.
4. The Zohar’s reading · Idra Rabba: the thirteen as the conformations of the divine beard
In the Zohar’s Idra Rabba, the thirteen attributes are read as the thirteen conformations of the beard of the Holy Ancient One — thirteen channels through which mercy flows to the worlds: “It is the precious beard, the perfect faithful one, in which thirteen springs flow — fountains of the oil of good anointing — ordered in thirteen conformations.” The beard is a configuration of mercy, not a literal beard.
Notice The same thirteen are, at once, a liturgical petition (the prayer), a structure of divine governance (the Talmud), and a cosmic anatomy of mercy (the Zohar). Full from-Aramaic translation + apparatus: hekhal.org/texts/zohar-idra-rabba-tikkunei-dikna-targum
For the teacher: one topic, every level
What it asks
The source
Children’s Hebrew school
Who is God when we ask to be forgiven? “Merciful and gracious, slow to anger.”
The prayer (block 2), the simple words
Day school / b’nei mitzvah
Why does God reveal these attributes right after the Golden Calf? What are the thirteen?
The verse in context (block 1), the count (block 3)
Adult / yeshiva
Why does the prayer stop at ve-nakeh when the verse continues? Mercy and justice in three words.
The verse vs. the prayer (blocks 1-2), Rosh Hashanah 17b
Seminary / rabbinical
How does the Zohar read the thirteen as the configurations of the divine countenance?
The Idra Rabba (block 4), from the Aramaic
For discussion
The prayer recites ve-nakeh as mercy; the verse continues lo yenakeh as justice. Is the liturgy changing the Torah’s meaning, or choosing which face of it to stand before?
God reveals the Thirteen Attributes to Moses after the Golden Calf. Why are the terms of mercy disclosed at the moment of greatest failure?
Rabbeinu Tam counts the two utterances of the Name as “mercy before one sins” and “mercy after.” What would it mean for there to be a mercy that precedes the sin?
The Zohar makes the thirteen a structure in God’s own “face.” Does turning attributes of action into cosmic anatomy deepen the idea of mercy, or risk obscuring it?