The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy or Shelosh-'Esreh Middot enumerated in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 34:6-7) are the attributes with which, according to Jewish tradition, God governs the world. According to the explanation of Maimonides these attributes must not be regarded as qualities inherent in God, but merely as the method of His activity, by which the divine governance appears to the human observer to be controlled. In the Sifre, however, these attributes are not called "middot," which may mean "quality" as well as "rule" and "measure", but "derakim" (ways), since they are the ways of God which Moses prayed to know and which God proclaimed to him.
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Famous quotes containing the words thirteen, attributes and/or mercy:
“So that’s our new flag. The thing we’ve been fighting for—thirteen stripes for the colonies and thirteen stars in a circle for the union.”
—Lamar Trotti (1898–1952)
“God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence.
Corr. Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner.”
—Baruch (Benedict)
“Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)