Praising Hashem is a dangerous thing. Once you start, any time you stop you haven’t exhausted His praise, and faint praise is tantamount to insult!

Moshe praises Hashem as “HaKeil haGadol vehaGibbor vehaNorah“. That is the praise Anshei Kenesses haGedolah codified into Birkhas Avos, and thus that list somehow pasts muster. R Chanina (Megillah 25a) scolds a Chazan for ad-libbing beyond those three adjectives.

But we do have many more praises in Birkhas Avos! How is that legitimate?

The Vilna Gaon says that this four-description pattern, the noun and three adjectives*, is actually all we do say in this berakhah. The rest of it is explanations of this four-fold theme.

(* Sidenote: HaKeil haGadol vehaGibbor vehaNorah could equally be read two ways: “The G-d Who is Great, Mighty, and Awe-inspiring”. But because of Hebrew grammar, it is also, “The G-d, the Great One, the Mighty One, and the Awe-inspiring One” — four nouns. I think the Gra’s point draws on this lack of line between noun and adjective.)

We already got a glimpse of this in our previous post, when we translated “HaGadol” as “the One so Great as to always be present to provide Divine Good” and “HaGibbor” as “the One with the Restraint to let us be independent, and to save us when we fail”. And similarly, “Hashem Elokeinu” in the opening, “Gomeil chassadim tovim veQoneih haKol“, and “Ozeir uMoshia“.

• First iteration:
  • Barukh = HaKeil – Source of all existence. (Barukh and berakhah, wellspring, share a root.)
  • Atah Hashem = HaGadol – the Infinite, Transcendent, Always-present (and thus a “You”, using “Omnipresent” felt too abstract), All-Merciful
  • Elokeinu = HaGibbor – the G-d Who hides Himself behind Natural Law so that we have a forum in which we can make decisions and act autonomously. And the system means that poor choices come with consequences.
  • veElokei Avoseinu = vehaNorah – the G-d Who unifies with our actions through Moral Law. Exceptional things happen when people go beyond their own nature, as the Avos did. We go from nature to awe-inspiring miracle.
• Second iteration: HaKeil haGadol vehaGibbor vehaNorah
• Third iteration:
  • Keil Elyon = HaKeil
  • Gomeil Chassadim Tovim = HaGadol – Hashem as Infinite and thus Always-present “You”, All-Merciful is the Source of Lovingkindess when appropriate (“tovim“)
  • veQonei haKol = HaGibbor – Maker, Owner (think “qinyan“) and Repairer (as in “tiqun“) of the Universe is the one Who allows it to run by not overtly expressing that Chessed when it would not be apprioriate and only steps in when it needs repair, salvation and redemption.
  • veZokheir Chasdei Avos uMeivi Go’el = vehaNorah – the Avos founded a nation that strives for Moral Law beyond Natural Law and we express our faith that Hashem will respond with Moral over Natural Law and bring the final Ge’ulah.
• Fourth iteration:
  • Melekh = HaKeil
  • Ozeir = HaGadol – “Helper” continues the same train of thought as Hashem (Middas haRachamim), haGadol and always Being with me, and Chessed
  • uMoshia = HaGibbor – when His Strength to restrain allows us to mess up, He always will repair and save us.
  • uMagein = vehaNorah – but when we align ourselves with the Moral Law as the Avos did, He will preemptively protect us.

When we spoke of the G-d of Avraham, Yitzhaq and Yaaqov, we had in mind a dedication of three ways of making Hashem ours by building relationship with Him.

But the berakhah as a whole can have us thinking about the four ways we receive. (Four cups, like cups of wine?) It is our task to further develop and enhance what Hashem gives us. A task our nation started when Avraham took Hashem as His Shield.

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If growing up in a world influenced by feminism has made you uncomfortable with Qabbalah’s idea that men provide and women receive and develop, I believe the metaphor was intended to be biological rather than in terms of gender roles.