This is our third lesson on Middah number 3 of Hashem’s 13 Attributes of Mercy- Hanun.
Tosafot, in Rosh Hashanah, 17B, says the word Hanun comes from the root o “Matanat Hinam.”
As we have said previously, Hanun means a free gift, like it says in Berachot 7A, where Hashem says to Moshe, “I will have the Middah of Hanun on the one that I decide to,” and the Gemara explains that it means even if he's not befitting. This means that one of Hashem’s middot is that even though the person does not deserve it, even if the person is not befitting, Hashem still gives him, like Moshe Rabbenu’s famous prayer of V’Ethanan, that he from learned from God. God uses this trait. We're never supposed to ask God for what we deserve. We don’t deserve anything; we aren’t befitting, and still, God takes care of us.
That has to be our way with people.
Sometimes people come to the door to collect money, and you don't know whether the guy is befitting or not. He comes with a letter, but is it real? You don't know. You could just ignore him, or you can invoke the Middah of Hanun.
You can say, “ I don't know who this guy is; I don't know what his story is, but he looks like he's a bad luck case so
I'll give him something, even if I don't know if he deserves it… “
Whether he deserves it or not, that's the Middah of Hanun, and we need that more than anything else. It says that at the beginning of the year, we're supposed to come to Hashem with supplications, a poor man speaks. We're supposed to be like poor, impoverished people, and bang on the door. When we come to God during Selichot, we’re like a poor man banging on the door.
Do we want Hashem to go check His security camera? When the poor guy knocks on our door, do we tell our kids to say we aren’t home?
Maybe we have an excuse- maybe he's an armed robber.
But you can still slip the money through the mail slot. There are always ways around it… but without going into the details of everyone's security systems, the bottom line is that people knock on the door, and we don't know if they’re deserving or not. Invoking the Middah of Hanun causes God to answer the door when we are knocking, whether we are deserving or not.
We knock on the door every day, and that’s not an exaggeration.
The Gemara in Yerushalmi (quoted in Rashi Masechet Berachot) says that every day, when we get to the words Ga’al Yisrael right before the Amida, it’s a mashal for a man who's knocking on the King's door; the King opens the door and you have to be there.
That's why we have to say Gaal Yisrael right next to the Amida. We're banging on God's door throughout our prayers, for Him to open it up at the Amida.
There’s a fellow that bangs on the table every day in shul. People think it's Rosh Hodesh every day because he's banging on the table, but he’s really, “knocking on the door” to remind himself that he's knocking on God's door.
If we want God to answer the door when we knock, we have to answer the door when others knock.
Have a wonderful day.