MIDAS HA DIN VE MIDAS HA RACHAMIM

Note: what follows is a tentative text. I'm still wondering about this stuff. I don't know yet exactly what I think, but I am keen to hear what you think.


BILAAM YODEA DA’AS ELYON
Bilaam knew the intent of his creator: a midrash states that Bilaam knew precisely when HKBH would blow, and used that knowledge advantageously to curse. But Bilaam, while knowing when HKBH would utilize his midas ha din (characteristic of justice, the just aspect of the deity), did not know when He would instead apply his midas ha rachamim (quality of compassion).

Rashi explains that because of the prayers of the righteous, the midas ha din becomes the midas ha rachamim, whereas the evil of those who are wicked transforms the quality of mercy into the harsh exercise of justice (commentary on Parshas Noach).

So if it was not in accord with the will of the HKBH, a curse such as commanded by Balak the king of Moab could very well have played out like that scene in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, in which opening the Ark Of The Covenant turns into a howling apocalypse for the baddies.


Per Rashi, the world was first created with the midas ha din, and when it became apparent that something was missing in the world, midas ha rachamim was used.
[From this one could shper that the midas ha rachamim is especially suited to women. This is not necessarily wrong, but does not seem quite right either. One provides for those one loves with both, one protects those one loves with both. ]

The midas ha din is tempered by the midas ha rachamim, and intercourse with other people should be informed by both, being incomplete otherwise.

An example of the midas ha din being tempered by the midas ha rachamim is the allowance of a monetary restitution in lieu of an eye for an eye. The midas ha din demands an eye, the midas ha rachamim permits a payment of the value of the eye.
[Exacting the precise penalty stated (the eye) would leave something missing (a sense of the fairness of justice).]

The midas ha din judges strictly and finds the world wanting, the midas ha rachamim judges gently and sees worth in the world. The midas ha din opposes whatever and whoever is not perfect, but the midas ha rachamim excuses flaws and keeps them in existence.

This is somewhat like the modern American conception of Karma, but if the balance in the world implied above actually worked out so perfectly, there would be no hester panim, and the presence of the divine would be proven. The indescribability of the divine necessarily implies that if there were such a balance, it would not be apparent to us – we do not know, we cannot know.
There are causes for everything, but there will be the appearance of semi-random progression.
The semblance of chaos and the absence of the divine may be no more than a sign of the unknowability and actual presence of the divine.

Or not. It’s a question of faith.

What we are left with is that instead of assuming order in the world, we ourselves can, and probably must, impose order on our own scale and through our own actions. Raw reality tempered by tolerance. Order through midas ha din as interpreted through midas ha rachamim.