Maran, in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De’ah, chapter 247 tells us, “Whoever has mercy on the poor, God has mercy on them. A person should realize that he is constantly asking God for parnasa. And just like he’s asking God to listen to him and his cries, so too, he should listen to the cries of the poor.”
This is a famous concept-The way you act is the way God acts with you.
The Sefer Reshit Hochma (in the chapter on humility) quotes the Geonim (who came before the Rishonim like Rashi, Tosafot and Rambam) that the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashana tells us that God taught Moshe Rabbenu how to say the 13 Attributes of Mercy. (Rav Yochanan says that if the pasuk didn’t tell us, we couldn’t even say these words) Hashem, so to say, wrapped Himself in a talit like a hazan, and showed Moshe Rabbenu how to say the 13 Attributes, and He told him, “As long as the Jewish people act with this approach in front of Me, I will forgive and answer them.”
The Geonim point out that they see people that have said the 13 Attributes and aren’t answered. But they answer that we must look carefully at the words of Hashem. It’s not enough to just say the words… you have act or do. To“do in front of Me,” doesn’t just mean to wrap yourself in a talit. It means a person has to act like Hashem. If God is El Rachum V’Hanun, God of mercy and compassion, we also have to be merciful and compassionate.
As it says, “The way God is, is the way you have to be,” in all 13 Middot as well. So when you act with those 13 attributes, God will act to you with those 13 attributes.
The Maggid of Dubno, in his sefer Mishleh Yaakov, on Parashat Emor, adds some depth to this with a mashal:
There was a poor man who went around collecting. His parents had been great people, that people knew, so in the merit of his parents, he was given nice donations.
But then, due to his difficult situation, he looked so bad and pale, that when he knocked on doors, the people no longer recognize him. He then cried out, because no one had mercy on him. He says that the nimshal is that as long as we have mercy, As it says in Gemarah in Masechet Yevamot (79,a)
“If you have mercy on people you are from the seed of Abraham Avinu,” you’re acting like Abraham, who was a man of kindness. So if we don’t act with kindness, God says, I don’t recognize you. And then he can’t arouse the merit of our forefathers, because He doesn’t recognize us, because we aren’t acting like Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov.
So in order for us to arouse mercy in others, we ourselves have to act that way. That is another reason for Ahavat Yisrael.
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