21 Ki Tisa: Day 4 (Wednesday)
Today's reading is Exodus 33:17 to 33:23.
This is the link to Daily Chumash with Rashi at Chabad.
The Daily Wisdom from the Lubavitcher Rebbe is titled "The Face of G-d."
On 4 March 2026 at 3:02 PM EST, Jonathan writes:
Today is Shushan Purim. 15 Adar 5786 AM. What have the faithful seen of the mercy of God from their crevice in the walled city of Jerusalem?
According to the Bible Hub study notes for Exodus 33:19, "Like Moses, we are invited to seek God's presence and glory. Through prayer and Scripture, we can encounter His transformative presence in our daily lives."
It's a powerful verse:
"The LORD replied, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.'"
Rashi takes us from this verse into the 13 attributes of mercy:
"And according to this procedure, in which you see Me wrapped in a prayer blanket (tallit) and proclaiming these 13 attributes of mercy, so teach Israel to do the same."
Q1. Were the thirteen attributes of mercy revealed to Moses at Sinai when God passed in front of the crevice?
Paul takes us from the same verse, Exodus 33:19, into a deep reflection in Romans 9 on the implications of God's mercy in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Q2. Let's take a moment to explore the tension between the 13 Attributes of Mercy that Rabbinic Judaism extracts from Exodus 33:19 and the deep discussion of mercy that Paul extracts from the same verse in Romans 9. Are they two profoundly different ways of thinking about God's mercy, or do they have more in common than is sometimes realized?
Q3. I feel like there is much that God is calling me to look at in Romans 9. Is Paul saying that those who are called to faith in Jesus are the true Israel now, even if they are Gentiles, and that there is no earning of this salvation through good works, but rather it is always unmerited?
Q4. It complicates my view because it seems like it means that God has predestined some people to be vessels of wrath, and I don't see how that comports with an all-loving God. But let me see if I have the overall theology correct. Is Paul arguing that those who have sincere faith in Jesus as their Messiah become the subjects of spiritual Israel, and is this what Messianic Jewish rabbis like Mark Kinzer mean by the "Commonwealth of Israel," if it is seen as a loving complement to ethnic Israel?
Q5. Yes. Your explanation of the vessels of wrath is also helpful. Are there other parts of the New Testament that stress compassion for those who are not yet answering the call to faith in Jesus ("there but for the grace of God go I"), such that a disciple of Jesus is never writing people off as lost causes, but always earnestly hoping and praying that every soul will be reconciled back to God in the end?
Q6. What might Paul say to Christians and Jews here in 2026 AD to encourage kind and constructive relations between them?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the holy opportunity to study your Torah today. We ask that you pour out your blessings on all those who precede us, join us, and follow us in this effort, and that you make us good round-the-clock examples and emissaries of the Noahide Laws.
Amen and Shalom.
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