Question

Hello, Honorable Rabbi Michael.
https://mikyab.net/posts/6971/
I read your article that you wrote many years ago about how you do not understand what interests people in studying the Bible, and that this stems from the fact that the Bible is not being studied properly.
When studying chapters of the Hebrew Bible, we encounter many things from the Talmud and the commentaries, Maimonides, the Zohar and the writings of the Ari, Mesilat Yesharim, the various books of the Ben Ish Chai, the great liturgical poets Rabbi Israel Najara, Rabbi Ibn Gabirol, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, the great Hasidic rabbis Rabbi Nachman and the Alter Rebbe, and more.
For example, Rabbi Kook is known in his book Orot HaKodesh for the passage “Love of Israel”: the work of judging the collective and the individual favorably is not merely emotional work alone, but a great occupation in Torah, and a deep and broad wisdom, with many branches, all of which grow and draw nourishment from the dew of the light of the Torah of kindness.
The great love with which we love our nation will not blind our eyes from examining all its aspects, but rather we find its essence, even after the freest examination, free of any blemish. “You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you.”

We learn the meaning of these things from the prophet Hosea, who tells Israel that they do not know what love is, and that they want to worship God, but they love Him with a love that depends on something.
“Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has struck, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him. And let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord; His coming forth is sure as the dawn, and He will come to us like the rain, like the latter rain that waters the earth” (Hosea 6:1–3). And the prophet laments their love: “What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? Your kindness is like a morning cloud, like the dew that disappears early.” Their love is temporary and passing.
How should love of God, and love in general, truly be expressed? “For I desire kindness, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
There are three pillars on which the world stands: Torah, service, and acts of kindness. Israel said, “And let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord” (ibid., 3) — through Torah, through service — but where is the fundamental pillar, the pillar of kindness? The order is incomplete.
About this God says: “For I desire kindness, not sacrifice; knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (ibid., 6).
Knowledge symbolizes connection, love, and bonding between lovers.
A true connection to God is not only through the Temple and sacrificial worship, and not only through Torah, but through being a partner with God in repairing His world by means of kindness.
It says in Avot DeRabbi Natan (4:5): “Once Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was leaving Jerusalem, and Rabbi Joshua was following him, and he saw the Temple destroyed.
Rabbi Joshua said: Woe to us, for this place lies in ruins — the place where Israel’s sins were atoned for. He said to him: My son, do not be distressed. We have another atonement just like it, and what is it? Acts of kindness. As it is said: ‘For I desired kindness, not sacrifice.’ For so we find with Daniel, a man distinguished by acts of kindness, who was occupied with deeds of kindness.
And what were the acts of kindness Daniel was involved in?
He would gladden the bride, accompany the dead, give a coin to the poor, and pray three times every day, and his prayer was accepted willingly.” When you love someone, you in effect cover over all their shortcomings, ignore them, and rise above them.
For example, a baby is cuddled and kissed by everyone, even though he is, to say the least, not hygienic. Imagine the same dirtiness in an adult — would not everyone recoil from him? But the baby’s shortcomings are “atoned for.” The baby is loved, and people do not dwell on his shortcomings, but on the good within him. “Love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10).
Love is capable of covering and atoning for all shortcomings.
When one person repays another with kindness, he loves him and sees his good side.
When an entire society behaves this way, that is atonement for sins, atonement for the greatest shortcomings.
Or another example: on most weekdays, in the morning prayer after the Amidah, Psalm 20 from Psalms is recited. What is special about this psalm is that it serves as a kind of prayer for the continuation of the rest of the day, regularly, every day, as instituted by our sages.
There is an assurance that this will happen.
“The Lord answer you on the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob set you on high. May He send your help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.”
What builds a person’s confidence in a time of need?
Now I know that the Messiah answered this, as it is written in the liturgical poem: “He who answers…” among Ashkenazim, where at the end of each line it says, “may He answer us.”
We are familiar with the vision of the end of days: “For from Zion shall Torah go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” And in Psalm 20, King David adds that salvation and relief too will come forth from Zion.
“May He send your help from the sanctuary, and sustain you from Zion.”
And there is not only acceptance, but a desire to give in order to please our Creator.
“May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart, and fulfill all your counsel.”
There is a connection of action, thought, and emotion that corresponds to salvation.
It is written in Midrash Tehillim 20: “The God who answered me on the day of my distress” — concerning this Scripture says: “The Lord answer you on the day of trouble.”
Rabbi Shimon bar Abba said: from the beginning of the book until this point there are eighteen psalms, and then this psalm corresponds to the eighteen blessings of prayer.
When a person prays, they tell him: may He answer you in your distress.
We say the Shemoneh Esrei blessing with various prayers and supplications for the individual and the collective.
Rabbi Nachman, in his well-known saying, says: “If you believe that one can damage, believe that one can repair.” Regarding the strengthening of the heart, a person will humble himself with the knowledge that he has suffered from the heat of the many defects and corruptions that he has caused through his own actions. And he said: “If you believe that one can damage, believe that one can repair.”
The damage heralds the repair, the distress comes before relief, the sorrow before the joy, and in the end, “The Lord answer you on the day of trouble”; our King will answer us on the day we call.
“They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and been strengthened. We will sing of Your salvation, and in the name of our God we will raise our banner.”